The National Education Policy (NEP) in 2020 has the potential to transform India’s school and higher education. Multiple entry and exit points in higher education, blurring the boundaries between vocational and academic streams, removing the rigid barriers between arts and sciences, letting students have more choices, establishing a much-needed Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) — each one of these reforms is a seismic shift.

The latest policy proposal of introducing the National Credits Framework (NCrF) augurs well to bring about qualitative changes to how we can ensure higher order and future-ready learning outcomes. We should view the NCrF as an aspirational policy effort to measure what matters: critical thinking, problem-solving, holistic development, and citizenship values.

To make NCrF a success, these three areas need attention:

Future-skills linkage: Determine periodically the exact mindsets and competencies that will make our youth employable, productive, innovative, and responsible global citizens. The current areas identified for giving credits like laboratory work, innovation labs, sports and games, yoga, physical activities, performing arts, music, handicraft work, social work, NCC, training and skilling, field visits, on-the-job training and internship/ apprenticeship/ experiential learning, etc. are a great start.

Raising the bar on instructional design and pedagogy: The intent to get young students to pursue many co-curricular activities and get ‘credits’ for them is good. It, therefore, becomes imperative to ensure rigorous design, execution, and assessment systems.

Radical re-haul of evaluation and assessment systems: To adopt the new system and think of the exam as not a year-end affair of acting God, but as a continuous and multi-pronged real-time assessment of learning (measured in internalised capabilities) will be new to many teachers, schools, and colleges. Many of our IIT-IIM- Foreign education-obsessed parents who have been raised to believe that grades are equal to learning will find it hard to believe the relevance of credits for holistic development. Of course, we must assess the students for what should matter and they will learn what matters for the future. But we also educate parents and employers to expect future-ready mindsets and skill sets and refine bright as not just marks and grades. Finally, when these changes make the lofty objectives of our National Education Policy come alive, many of our young parents will say: “My daughter/son will be given credit for what matters…..”.

The writer is Professor of Practice (OB) at the Indian School of Business. Views expressed are personal