2009-10 (16.6 MB) - The National Institute of Open Schooling

National Institute of Open Schooling
translation of NIOS materials into Bengali medium. A new
subject, Bengali language at Senior Secondary level, was
also taken up for development.
3.4 Other Important Activities
3.4.1 Vision Document
Upon the assumption of charge by the new Chairman,
Dr. S.S. Jena, a Vision Document for NIOS was
developed, which highlighted the path to be taken by
NIOS in the coming years as well as the new areas
of work in the area of Open Schooling.
3.4.2 Foundation Day Celebrations and
Inaugural Meeting of COMOSA
The NIOS was set up as an autonomous body on
23 rd November, 1989. On this day in 2009, a national
level workshop was organized and a book entitled
“The Way Forward” was released by Smt. Anshu
Vaish, Secretary (SE&L), MHRD. Wide publicity
was done through newspaper advertisements.
The Commonwealth of Learning also organised the
inaugural meeting of the Commonwealth Open
Schooling Association (COMOSA) wherein the
constitution of COMOSA was adopted by the
member countries. Dr. S.S. Jena, Chairman, NIOS,
was elected the first Chairperson of COMOSA.
3.4.3 Academic Council Meeting
The tentth meeting of the Academic Council was
organised by the Academic Department on 17th March,
2010. The Council approves the work plan of Academic
and Vocational Department in particular and other
academic activities undertaken by the other
Departments in general. With the assumption of charge
of NIOS by Dr. S.S. Jena, Chairman, the Academic
Council was reconstituted. Some new members were
inducted and their guidance and advice sought in
chalking out the programmes of different departments
for the year 2010-2011. While welcoming the new
members, the Chairman emphasized the significant role
of NIOS in universalising secondary education in India
and referred to the need to extend the reach of NIOS
in all the states/districts of the country.
After the confirmation of the minutes of the Ninth
Academic Council meeting and the reporting of the
Action Taken report, the following areas were
discussed in detail among other things :
– New Projects/Programmes of Academic
Department.
– Approval of programmes of Academic
Department for the year 2010.
– Approval of activities to be undertaken under AEP.
– Approval of different activities to be undertaken
by Vocational Department in 2010.
– Proposal for collaboration with Open Training and
Education Networking (OTEN), Australia.
– Introduction of new courses/projects in Vocational
Department.
– Setting up of a Research and Development Cell
in NIOS.
– Approval of Work Plan for Media Unit.
– Introduction of On Demand Examination in
Regional Centres.
– Delinking of TMA from Certification.
The observations/suggestions given by the esteemed
members for the council were discussed and noted for
future plan of action.
3.4.4 Training Programmes for Staff
As a part of the strategy for development of capacities
of staff, training programme on “Evaluation techniques
and development of Blue print” was conducted for
academic staff of NIOS. This was a precursor to the
initiation of the Question Bank activity.
3.4.5 Pan Commonwealth Forum 6
The PCF6 is being held at Kochi in Nov 2010 with
the aim of promotion of distance and open learning.
Papers were invited for this forum.
The abstracts of the following faculty members have
been accepted:
(i) Dr Anita Priyadarshini - Using Technology for
Strengthening Open schooling : A study of the
Ni On project on NIOS
(ii) Ms Koushalya Barik – Vocational Education
Through Open Schooling : Lessons From
NIOS
(iii) Dr. B.K Rai – Role of Open and Distance
Learning System in Reducing the Stress Among
The Learners
3.4.6 Printing of OSAC Journal
The OSAC journal was taken out in August 2009
along with the Open Learning Magazine 2009. The
articles for the next OSAC issues were also finalized.
During the year 2009-10, efforts were made to obtain
an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for the
COL-NIOS international journal on open schooling, OSAC
which has since been renamed as COMOSA Journal. This
has now been provided by NISCAIR.
Annual Report 2009-10 19