The National Institute of Open Schooling, commonly known as NIOS , NOS or National Open School, is the Board of Education for school level in India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India in 1989. The NIOS is a national board for Secondary and Senior Secondary examinations similar to the CBSE and the CISCE.
It has a current enrollment of about 1.5 million students at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels 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 centres and Open Basic Education Programme through 664 Accredited Agencies. There are 26 study centres 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.
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 organise human resource development programmes 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.
Courses offered:
NIOS offer the following courses:
- Open Basic Education Programme, Which includes following three levels courses
- OBE 'A' Level Course -Equivalent to class III
- OBE 'B' Level Course -Equivalent to class V
- OBE 'C' Level Course -Equivalent to class VIII
- Secondary Course-Equivalent to class X
- Senior Secondary Course-Equivalent to class XII
- Vocational Education Courses
- Life Enrichment Programmes
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