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

NIOS: The Way Forward / 59
steps to run an educational channel through DTH (Direct to Home) for reaching
out to its students not only at their study centres but also at their homes.
6.12.5 Videoconferencing
This technology allows exchange of not just voice and graphics but also moving
images. Videoconferencing technology does not use telephone lines but it
uses either a satellite link or television network (broadcast/cable). Web-based
conferencing, as the name implies, involves the transmission of text, and
graphic, audio and visual media via Internet. It requires the use of a computer
with a browser and communication can be both synchronous and
asynchronous. In this context, the possibility of using the EDUSAT network in
the country shall be explored.
6.12.6 Mobile Computing
Mobile computing is a technology that helps the user to connect the computer
to network anytime and anywhere. This technology actually caters to the needs
of users who ask for mobility and portability in using their computers. As
notebook computers (laptops) became more and more affordable and useful,
the number of laptop users has increased rapidly. The multiple connectivity
through mobile technology will help the student to have updated information
from NIOS related to their course work.
6.12.7 Community Radio
Community Radio has become an effective and economical means for reaching
out to persons in far flung areas as well as to those who have a common area
of interest. In this case learners of NIOS can easily be connected to each
other and to NIOS RC or HQ through the community radio network. The
modalities of this can be worked out and the possibility of setting up a
community radio station at NIOS learning network can be taken up.
Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) has already
offered to collaborate with NIOS in this project.
6.13 Education of Special Disadvantaged Groups
6.13. 1 Education of Minorities
NIOS has been mandated by the Government of India to provide educational
access to all those who are outside the formal school system i.e.; to “reach
the unreached”. Within the “unreached”, NIOS has its prioritized target
groups comprising of marginalized groups, namely, rural youths, girls and
women, SCs/STs, and differently abled learners street children etc.
Although the cumulative enrolment of NIOS has been increasing in absolute
terms, the proportional representation of these prioritized target groups has
remained more or less static over last one and a half decades. It has been
observed that within the educationally unreached categories, women in general,