India, April 2 -- The Centre has granted the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) the status of an "Institution deemed to be University under distinct category", enabling it to independently offer degree programmes as part of efforts to strengthen teacher education and educational research in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

With the new status conferred by the Union ministry of education, NCERT will now be able to offer higher education programmes in education across diploma, undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), doctoral and specialised levels, while continuing its core role in school curriculum development.

Officials said the "distinct category" tag recognises NCERT's specialised national ...