Aim is to reach every student’s learning requirement: NIOS chairperson

The number of students taking up National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in Tamil Nadu is increasing, said Chairperson of NIOS Akhilesh Mishra in Chennai.

Speaking to The Hindu, he said, “Previously, students were hesitant to take up NIOS as there were issues with credit transfer and language convergence. This deterred them from taking it up. But in the last two-three years, these issues have been resolved with the Tamil Nadu government granting equivalence and eligibility to sit for Tamil Nadu Public Service Examinations and promotions. The awareness regarding the board has been increasing and the student numbers will increase. We plan to partner with many specialised universities to offer courses to the public.”

In 2023, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department had issued a notification that NIOS certificates were not equivalent to those issued by the State Board and some others. This was then revoked in 2024, providing relief for many.

NIOS recently announced that Tamil medium instruction would also be provided at the Senior Secondary level. It was available to students only till Secondary level under the board. “This move is sure to increase students’ admission in Tamil Nadu as NIOS is getting more popular. There is certainly a big chunk of drop out students and we need to reach them. As the strength increases, the study centres will also increase in the area. Currently, NIOS is more popular in urban areas of Tamil Nadu such as Coimbatore and Chennai. Students are eligible to sit for engineering counselling and pursue any form of higher education as equivalence have been granted,” said NIOS Regional Director V. Santhanam.

Pointing out that NIOS ultimately wants to reach every student’s learning requirement across the country Mr. Akhilesh said, “As per government statistics, there are one crore people out of school due to certain obstacles. So, we are targeting to reach the unreachable. We are devising a mechanism so that people who wish to join at any age can pursue through NIOS and join mainstream schooling. Our target is to ensure that nobody is deprived of education.”

Delay in textbook

The delay in study materials reaching students were raised by many parents with many resorting to using photocopies of the material. Taking note of this, Mr. Akhilesh stated that the delay in textbooks was a logistic issue which was being sorted out. “We are working on it as many students depend on the learning material. We do have all the materials available online. We are making sure that it reaches every student as soon as possible from this academic year,” he said.