The National Cadet Corps, a premier uniformed youth organisation of our country, has contributed significantly to nation-building since its inception. It has transformed the lives of millions of youth by shaping their character and showing them the path of ‘Unity and Discipline’, the motto of NCC.
The NCC has made notable and praiseworthy contributions in spreading awareness among the masses on important issues like water conservation, environment protection, Swachhta Abhiyan and enforcing COVID-19 protocols. It is time that NCC now be considered as a general elective subject/credit course in all universities and colleges which are affiliated with NCC in an extracurricular capacity.
Secretary of the Department of Higher Education from the Ministry of Education, Amit Khare held a meeting with Lt Gen Tarun Aich, Director-General of NCC and Maj Gen M Indrabalan, ADG of NCC, on facilitating the implementation of NCC general elective credit course across universities and technical colleges in India. He welcomed the circulars issued by UGC and AICTE that recognises NCC as a credit course designed by Directorate General National Cadet Corps (DGNCC), which he hailed as a landmark step.
In phase one, adoption of the course in colleges already having NCC units will be made possible. Subsequent expansion to other colleges would depend on the creation of necessary capacity with DGNCC or by the colleges themselves. DGNCC revealed that under Fully Self-Financed Scheme, one lakh vacancies have been released for private colleges over and above the 15 lakh sanctioned strength of NCC.
Interestingly as a JS in 2013, Khare had initiated a similar process. But at that time it was considered as an elective subject since choice based semester system was not in place. He mentioned that the National Education Policy, 2020 has already recognised the importance of holistic education, social service, community development et al as credit courses under the Choice Based Credit System and NCC training already falls in this ambit.
Out of the 979 universities in India, only 54 are central universities, 425 are state universities and 125 are deemed universities. To achieve implementation of NCC elective in state universities, the DoE would approach the state governments to facilitate the process. The DoE would also consider the suitability of introducing the NCC credit course in IITs and NITs.
Khare also conveyed that the benefits of the NCC credit course to students need to be adequately publicised to generate awareness and interest among universities and students. He appreciated the efforts being made by DG of NCC and the state directorates engaging with universities and colleges in assisting the implementation.