Annual Report 2010-11 - The National Institute of Open Schooling

National Institute of Open Schooling
1.12 New Initiatives
NIOS has always strived for innovations to provide
better and value added services to the learners. Some
of the initiatives taken in the year of reporting are given
below.
• NIOS has set up a Capacity Building Cell for
training and empowering ODL functionaries and
supporting the newly set up Open Learning
institutions at school level.
• New Regional Centres were established and
operationalised at Bengaluru and Gandhinagar.
A sub-regional Centre at Vishakhapatnam was
set up. A cell was also set up at Port Blair,
Andaman & Nicobar Islands. These initiatives
have been taken to reach out to learners in
different parts of the country.
• The success of the Hunar Project in Bihar
encouraged NIOS to launch the project in
Delhi. This project aims at skill development
and training of girls in the age group of 14+.
• NIOS has been identified for providing teacher
training at elementary level through Open and
Distance mode as all teachers at elementary level
need to be trained by 2015. The curriculum
has been finalised over a series of meetings.
• Tele-conferencing as a strategy has great
potential for training and capacity building of
Open Schooling functionaries. With the technical
and infrastructural support of EMPC, IGNOU,
New Delhi, at the teaching end and different
sites of Regional Centres of IGNOU and NIOS
at the receiving end a series of tele-orientation
programmes were organised in the year under
reporting.
• An important highlight of the year 2010-11 is
the signing of Memorandums of Understanding
with a number of organisations-both national
and international.
• In a new initiative to set up libraries at all
Regional Centres, seed money of Rs. 50,000/
- each was granted to 14 Regional Centres/
sub-Regional Centres to purchase books and
journals.
1.13 International Collaboration
As a premier institution in the field of Open and
Distance Learning at the school level, NIOS
6
Annual Report 2010-11
collaborates with a number of international agencies.
In the year under review, NIOS conducted an
international workshop on Monitoring and
Evaluation of Open Schools (June 21-23, 2010)
in collaboration with the COL (Commonwealth of
Learning). International delegates from Open Schools
and Open Universities of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka and Indian Delegates from State Open Schools
participated in the workshop.
The National Institute of Open Schooling participated
as a partner agency in the 6 th Pan Commonwealth
Forum on Open Schooling (PCF-6) the theme of
which was Access and Success in Learning: Global
Development Perspectives. This five day conference
was held in Kochi and was attended by more than
600 delegates from 70 countries.
The NIOS exhibited its publications and AEP related
promotional materials at this conference. Chairman,
NIOS and other senior level officials presented
papers and participated actively in the proceedings
of the conference.
The pre-PCF 6 Conference on Research in Open
Schooling was organised by NIOS on November
22-23, 2010 at Delhi and was attended by twenty
five Heads of Open Schools of Commonwealth
countries and eight State Open Schools of India.
The Annual General Body Meeting of COMOSA was
held on 21 st November, 2010 at India Habitat Centre
in which the key note address- Education for 21 st
Century: Time for Open Schools to Raise their
Game - was delivered by Sir John Daniel, President
and CEO of Commonwealth of Learning.
The NIOS is currently implementing the Adolescent
Education Programme (AEP) supported by UNFPA
and MHRD. The objective of the project is to
empower youth with necessary life skills.
1.14 Celebration of Important Days
The National Institute of Open Schooling celebrated
its 22 nd Foundation Day on 23 rd November 2010.
The first Foundation Day Lecture was delivered by
Shri Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM
on Inclusive Education : Role of Media and
Technology.
Centenary year of International Women’s Day was
celebrated through a two day Seminar on
Transcending Barriers : Inclusive Education in the
context of Open Schooling.