Beginner's Guide to NIOS Education

The National Institute of Open Schooling (often abbreviated as NIOS, NOS or National Open School) was formerly known as National Open School (NOS), is the Board of Education for open schools in India. This autonomous body was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India in 1989, to provide education inexpensively to remote areas. The NIOS is a national board that administers examination for Secondary and Senior Secondary examination of open schools similar to the CBSE and the CISCE.

It had a cumulative enrollment of about 1.5 million students from 2004-2009 at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels and enrolls about 350,000 students annually which makes it the largest open schooling system in the world. The National institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has entered into its adulthood and is just going to complete two decades of its existence in the field of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in the school education sector.

NIOS has been offering Secondary and Senior Secondary courses through 2144 study centers, Vocational Education & training (VET) courses through 1106 study centers and Open Basic Education Programme through 664 Accredited Agencies. There are 26 study centers of NIOS in overseas countries.

NIOS not only offers a wide spectrum of courses of study up to the pre-degree level for all categories of learners, but also works as a nodal institute for carrying forward the open school movement in the country in order to achieve the objective of developing an inclusive learning society. NIOS is providing a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and community oriented courses besides General and Academic Courses at Secondary and Senior Secondary level.

It also offers Elementary level Courses through its Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE). Government of India through a gazette notification vested NIOS with the authority to examine and certify learners registered with it upto pre degree level courses.

The Open Schooling Association of the Commonwealth (OSAC), established with financial assistance from the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), and having its Secretariat at NIOS New Delhi, functions as a liaisoning agency for information dissemination, coordination and mutual consultation among member countries. The mandate for OSAC is to organize human resource development programme’s for functionaries of Open Schools, promote research and development activities and take steps to ensure quality of standards. Through periodic meetings, the OSAC provides forum for discussion on issues of mutual interest and concerns.

Just Indian Schools is an online information service provider for schools in India. It aims to provide information on all Indian schools in India, starting from Play Schools, Kindergarten Schools, Primary Schools, High Schools, and Higher Secondary Schools affiliated to different Board patterns like CBSE, ICSE, NIOS and other State Board etc.

JustIndianSchools.com was launched with the aim of making life easy for parents by providing in-depth, true, relevant and unbiased information about all schools in India. JustIndianSchools also offers services to assist schools in India to effectively promote themselves on the online search medium. This indeed is a complete solution for all schools related needs where parents can ask queries or even have access to the desired schools application form. In a way presence of all schools in India on a single platform, serves a right purpose for parents and people looking for schools information at a single tick.

Ambarish Verma, Proprietor of eduFYI, the parent company of JustIndianSchools.com says, “Our aim is to provide information about schools and encourage experience sharing so that parents are able to make wise and informed decision. We are all a part of a fast paced world and it’s imperative to ensure that our children receive well-rounded education. As compared to the monotonous syllabus and teaching aids used in traditional methods of teaching, Indian schools appear to be a breath of fresh air for the new age learner’’.

JustIndianSchools.com will be coming up with information directory services and would be adding different service verticals. JustIndianSchools.com plans to cover all Indian schools in India in the near future.

The NIOS board is moderated and designed by the conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India Council, to provide education inexpensively to remote areas. It was started as a project with in-built flexibilities by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 1979. In 1986, the National Policy on Education suggested strengthening of Open School System for extending open learning facilities in a phased manner at secondary level all over the country as an independent system with its own curriculum and examination leading to certification.

The Open Schooling Association of the Commonwealth (OSAC), was established with financial assistance from the International Collaboration of Commonwealth of Learning (COL), having its Secretariat at NIOS New Delhi and UNESCO in order to promote Open Schooling in India.

International Centre for Training in Open Schooling (ICTOS) is an advocacy programme set up by COL and UNESCO, the ICTOS offers Certificate, Advanced Certificate and Diploma courses in open schooling. It functions as a liasioning agency for information dissemination, coordination and mutual consultation among member countries.

The mandate for OSAC is to organize human resource development programme’s for functionaries of Open Schools, promote research and development activities and take steps to ensure quality of standards.

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) provides opportunities to interested learners by making available the following Courses/Programmes of Study through open and distance learning (ODL) mode.