NIOS : The Way Forward - The National Institute of Open Schooling

NIOS: The Way Forward / 15
●
●
●
Rural People and Urban Poor
Unemployed and part employed, seeking jobs or better jobs
The older than the younger, from 35 years down, in the age bracket of
15-35
The challenging Mission generated a good deal of passion among the staff,
as it strove to reach the unreached and the unserved in far away places. The
motto set was: “Yeh Rista na tootte”
2.4 Characteristics of National Open School
The detailed description of the characteristics and flexibilities of the ODLS
was carefully followed by the NOS. To briefly identify these:
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Open entry –admission to the foundation course and to the secondary
were based on a self-certificate. To continue, the candidate was to take a
first test, after three months of study and pass it. The test was evaluated
by the Optical Mark Reader of the computer and hence collated results
for each study centre were dispatched in a couple of weeks.
Age: While there was no upper age restriction, the minimum age was
kept at 14
Choice of Subjects: Candidates could choose the subjects they wanted,
but had to take one language.
Self-Paced Learning: Candidates could take up to five years to complete
the course, taking, if they chose to, one or more subjects at a time,
especially if they were employed.
Scheme of Examination: For the benefit of the candidates, two full scale
examinations were held twice in a year. Pass credits were stored (in the
computer) and not lost, even when one decided to discontinue for a year
or less and could resume and complete the course and pass in the
remaining subjects and get certificate.
Multi-Media package: Besides the printed material, which was specially
prepared to be a “teacher in print” and highly interactive, audio and video
support is also provided in a limited measure.
Learning Support Centres: At the Accredited Study Centres, the candidates
could get tutorial assistance. In order to promote self-learning, the
academic staff had put all the subjects of the entire Senior Secondary
course into Concept Maps or Mind Maps or Concept Webs.
2.5 Two Decades of Growth of Open Schooling (1989-2009)
The past two decades have witnessed steady growth and several innovations
by the NIOS. In summary form, these are listed below: