In a major policy shift, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been entrusted with granting equivalence to Class 10 and 12 certificates issued by different school education boards across India. The reform is expected to bring uniformity in admissions to higher education institutions and government recruitment processes, officials confirmed on Friday.

The announcement, formalized through a notification in the e-Gazette by the Department of School Education and Literacy, supersedes a 2021 directive that had assigned the task to the Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

Under the new framework, NCERT will exercise this authority through its National Assessment Centre — PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development) — established as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

“This institutional mechanism will ensure that equivalence determination is carried out through a robust and academically rigorous process that upholds the highest educational standards,” the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

The system will apply uniformly to central, state, and private school boards set up under parliamentary or state legislations, executive orders, or statutory bodies.

Officials noted that once NCERT grants equivalence, it will automatically be recognized as parity across all boards in India. This, they said, would “facilitate smooth inter-board migration for students nationwide,” removing longstanding hurdles faced by those switching education systems.