Odisha HRD

Odisha government planning for its own Open School System along the lines of NIOS

Following is from a report in ibnlive.com.

The State Government is planning to start open schools in all the districts very soon to enable over-aged dropouts complete their schooling.

The initiative is being taken under the Orissa State Open School (OSOS) which proposes to set up the open schools on the lines of the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS). Students getting themselves enrolled at the open school could either opt for a personal contact programme or a distance education programme to get quality education. For the junior classes, the school would impart education in essential subjects, including arithmetic, reading and writing, alongside pre-vocational training to help them get employment in case they are unable to continue their education. These schools will also offer dozens of new courses so that students can opt for the professional skills best suited to their regional markets.

“The idea has been mooted with an aim of drawing school dropouts back to classrooms by providing them an organised system of education outside of formal schooling,” said School and Mass Education Minister Pratap Jena while speaking to this paper.

He said talks are on with the higher authorities of NIOS to formulate the courses and schooling designs and the Department is expecting to start the open schools during the ongoing academic year. “The open schools are expected to draw a large number of dropouts in the State who want to complete their schooling. The duration of the courses for classes V, VII and X would be of six months each. The detailed modalities for the functioning of these schools are being worked out,” the Minister said. He added that extra care will be taken to ensure that quality of education in such schools is not compromised. The schools would function through a number of study centres which would be established in different districts.

Several other state governments have launched the open-school system to provide educational facilities to over-aged school dropouts to complete their education.

The website of the NIOS is http://nos.org/. Currently one of its 16 regional offices is in Bhubaneswar. Its contact details is:

Sh. Rushi Kumar Rath
Regional Director,  Regional Centre – Bhubaneswar ,
Adivasi Exhibition Ground Unit 1, Bhubneswar -751 009, Orissa

Ph: 0674-2740208, Fax : 0674-2597287, E-mail:rcbbsr@nios.ac.in

1 comment July 11th, 2011

National Institute of Open Schooling

Its webs site is http://www.nios.ac.in/. Following is information from that page.

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) formerly known as National Open School (NOS) was established in November,1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD), Government of India. 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 for 14+ age group 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.

Academic programs it offers are given in the page http://www.nios.ac.in/AcadPC.htm. They are:

Open Basic Education: Open Basic Education (OBE) Programme providing a elementary education at three levels, for school drop-outs and neo-literates, out of              school learners through Accredited Agencies.

– Secondary Course equivalent to Class X
 

– Senior Secondary Course equivalent to class XII

– Vocational Education

NIOS has established an International Centre for Training in Open Schooling (ICTOS)

Training Packages for ODL functionaries

 NIOS HQ is in NOIDA. It has regional centers in Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Pune, Chandigarh, Kolkata (with a subcenter in Bhubaneswar), Patna, Kochi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Allahabad (with a sub-center in Dehradun).

It has study centers across the country and across Orissa. The list is available at http://www.nos.org/nosresults/nos/searchai.html.

Odisha should push for having a regional center.

April 25th, 2010