On 15th April last month, the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued an advisory to all vice-chancellors of universities across the nation to include National Cadet Corps (NCC) training as an elective credit course. If this gets executed, NCC will become a part of the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS), the move envisioned in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
NEP 2020 provides a plethora of options to students, who can select their choices of subjects rather than being confined to only those being given by the universities. On the same lines, students enrolled as NCC cadets will earn academic credits for NCC training in addition to NCC ‘B’ and ‘C’ certificates, and will be eligible to avail employment incentives offered under several central and state government schemes.
The decision of UGC’s advisory to universities came in the aftermath of a letter being sent by the Directorate General, NCC, proposing to include NCC as an elective subject in Indian Universities after an in-depth study being done on NCC’s transformative role.
Nurturing the Nation: The NCC way
With its transformative change, NCC brings the much-needed discipline and sensible notion in cadets towards their duties. The role of cadets is not only limited to managing local administration, crowd, and traffic, but it is much more than that, connecting with people, understanding them, helping them during crises, and empathize with larger social and developmental causes.
Overall, the NCC structure delineates a direction for youth, irrespective of socio-economic background, which means advancing both character and career and rendering national service. A better mix of cadets will promote youth cohesion, with the experience during the NCC training days. The robust NCC network would result in better intake into the “officer” stream of the Indian Armed Forces and higher management in public and private sectors. Finally, the biggest incentive for the youth of the country would be the pride that stems from wearing a uniform, which services and nurtures the nation
NCC: India’s largest uniformed youth organization
Considered as the India’s largest uniformed youth organization, NCC’s 14 lakh cadets are presently serving under the Indian Armed Forces, which develop a sense of patriotism and leadership among the youth. The organization has its footprint covering thousands of educational institutions across India.
Coming to the financial management, the Ministry of Defence along with state governments share the expenditure and expenses on payments of the local employees of the state NCC directorate, apart from allotting office accommodation, transportation for the local units, and their officials.
With UGC putting forward an imperative step in nation-building, the NCC must evolve from being an extra-curricular activity to an elective subject integrated into the national educational and should make a formal entry in Indian universities.
WhatsApp us