Rethinking Qualifications Systems: Professor Santosh Mehrotra Speaks at IOE Seminar
Professor Santosh Mehrotra is a Leading Research Fellow at the IOE and a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath. His research has made significant contributions to the fields of employment, skills development, the relationship between human development and economic growth, and the economics of education.
The seminar, titled “India’s Qualifications System: Reassessing National Skills Qualification Framework and the Promise of a New National Credit Framework for Education,” focused on recent developments in India’s qualifications architecture and their broader implications for education systems.
During the presentation, Professor Mehrotra examined the evolution of India’s qualifications system through two key policy instruments: the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and the National Credit Framework (NCrF). He argued that India is currently at a critical stage in rethinking the governance of qualifications and educational mobility.
While the NSQF introduced a learning-outcomes-oriented, levels-based approach to skills development, its implementation has faced challenges including fragmented institutional arrangements, concerns about assessment credibility and weak signalling effects in the labour market. Consequently, the framework often operated more as a classification mechanism than a comprehensive instrument for reform.
Professor Mehrotra emphasised that these limitations were largely structural rather than technical in nature. Qualifications frameworks alone cannot ensure trust or mobility without credible systems of assessment, quality assurance and recognition. Against this background, the recently introduced National Credit Framework (NCfR), which was developed in line with India’s National Education Policy 2020, aims to strengthen the connections between school education, higher education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and experiential learning by providing a unified credit architecture.
The seminar was moderated by Marina Luchina, with Vera Maltseva serving as discussant. The discussion addressed broader questions concerning qualifications systems, institutional trust, and educational mobility, as well as the challenges associated with implementing large-scale policy reforms.
Qualifications frameworks alone cannot transform education systems. Their effectiveness ultimately depends on whether they are supported by credible assessment mechanisms, institutional trust, and stronger links with the labour market. The promise of India’s new credit framework lies not only in greater flexibility, but in its potential to create more coherent educational pathways,” noted Professor Mehrotra.
