Tutor: SS Coaching team
NIOS gives ample of reasons for students to be happy because here it is in the learners hand is a powerful tool to follow his dreams. We have to spread the word about the power of open schooling for people around the world internationally.
On one side, N.I.O.S has helped young whizz kid to work towards their pursuits without missing out on formal academic education. On the other side it has helped learners with difficulties in achieving their academic goals for a better career ahead. But in between the ends of this compass there are so many learners who do not wish to stay in the school system not because they cannot cope with it, but because they do not want to. We believe in an education outside the four confined walls of convention. Each time a student opens an NIOS textbook, he is greeted with the words – “Congratulations! You have accepted the challenge to be a self-learner. NIOS is with you at every step.
This story is not an unusual one. Deepak did not have any exceptional sporting talent and nor is a tale of academic excellence. But like any other person of his age he had some interests that we wished to explore. NIOS helped him to pursue these interests in two ways: one, by studying the subjects of my choice – Economics, History, Accounts and Psychology. Secondly, by allowing him to study at my own pace, he was able to pursue interests that were non-academic but equally important to his educational interests and procedure.
Normal schooling would not have allowed him to pursue this self-directed experiment in education. And it is for this reason that NIOS plays a very important role in education and society. It gives us children leverage over their lives.
There are so many people like them who do not thrive in the conventional system, but do not know that they have another option. And it is for this reason that each of us must become personal ambassadors of NIOS. Whenever we explain the concept of NIOS to anybody, more often than not, they say, ”Wow, I did not even know that such a great framework exists in the indian education system that allows students with the power and authority to study on their own terms and capcities.”
As we all know, many innovative and informal learning models have been set up in the country India. They are being built in the metro’s slums and in the minority communities. They are being set up by people who teach simply out of the love to teach. These models are not striving to be schools, and are educating people successfully just the same. If we could hand over the tool of open schooling to these people, I have no doubt that their effectiveness will increase manifold.
It is no small achievement for such a new education board on a national level to achieve the name and status of being the largest open schooling system in the world. But we still have a long way to go; fortunately for us, the road ahead is well-defined. We need to strengthen our contact and information centres. As we heard today about NIOS being taken to minority groups, unskilled workers, failed students who could not cope with regular schooling, rural learners, we understand that it can be integrated it into people’s larger needs of learning, career and life in so many different ways. We need to spread the word, NOW, never knowing who is going to benefit from it.
