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

46 / NIOS: The Way Forward
The Government has called for a determined action for making India a literate
society. The Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry which has set up
a Special Subject Group on Policy Framework for Private Investment in
Education, Health and Rural Development has stated that “as the world moves
to forging an information society founded on education, India cannot remain
behind as a non-competitive labour oriented society. Therefore, a vision for
education in India has to inspire creation of a knowledge-based society, induce
competitiveness yet foster a sense of co-operation. According to this, the
vision for education in India would be “To Create A Competitive, Yet Co-
Operative, Knowledge Based Society.”
In view of these developments, the NIOS as the apex body for Open schooling
in the country and one that has been assigned a national lead role by the
Government, has to move forward at a rapid pace and set the stage for
overall reforms that would lead to a more inclusive education system of quality
for all.
6.2 Learning, Development and Open Schooling
Since learning is an essential constituent for development, in our democratic
polity, access to learning must be made available to all. That is why the
international community has committed itself to reach the goal of Education
for All (EFA) at Dakar. The UN has set eight Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) to be achieved by 2015 by all the nations. Universalisation of Primary
Education is among these goals.
Though we have had a significant expansion of formal education over the last
60 years, we are still to achieve fully the goal of Universatisation of Primary
Education (UPE). But the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) has led
to a resurgent need for secondary level school education. With growing
realization of the relevance of education for life and living, an increasing number
of those who complete primary are moving to the middle stage and then to
the secondary. Hence, there is talk of universalizing secondary education.
The Government of India has set up the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shikha Abhiyan
(RMSA) which states as its vision “good quality, accessible and affordable
secondary level education to all.” Where are the classrooms? Where are the
human resources in terms of teachers? There is no doubt that formal education
by itself will not be able to meet the huge challenge of providing education of
quality to all.
Together, the formal system at the tertiary and at school levels, along with the
growingly popular Open education at University and school levels, can
contribute to the making of a New India, an India of the Constitution, by providing
education of quality to all at a greatly reduced cost. The formal system has
largely failed to provide an inclusive education of quality. This will be the
contribution of the Open System, because of its ability to reach the unreached.