India 2018

172 India 2018
At the secondary and senior secondary levels, NIOS provides flexibility
in the choice of subjects/courses, pace of learning, and transfer of credits from
CBSE, some Board of School Education and State Open Schools to enable
learner's continuation. A learner is extended as many as nine chances to appear
in public examinations spread over a period of five years. The credits gained
are accumulated till the learner clears required credits for certification. The
learning strategies include; learning through printed self-instructional material,
audio and video programmes, participating in personal contact programme
(PCP), and Tutor Marked Assignments (TMA). Enrichment is also provided to
the learners through the half yearly magazine "Open Learning". The Study
Material is made available in English, Hindi and Urdu mediums. The On-
Demand Examination System (ODES) is in operation at Secondary and Senior
Secondary stage. NIOS offers 28 subjects in eight mediums (Hindi, English,
Urdu, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati, Malayalam and Odia) for secondary
examinations and 28 subjects in Hindi, English, Urdu, Bengali and Odia
mediums for senior secondary examinations. Besides these, NIOS has provision
of offering Vocational subjects in combination with Academic subjects at
secondary stage and 20 vocational subjects in combination with Academic
subjects at Senior Seondary level.
Mid Day Meal Scheme
The Mid Day Meal Scheme covers children of Classes I-VI11 studying in
government, government-aided schools, special training centres (STC) and
madarsas/ maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). It is the
largest school feeding programme in the world, covering 9.78 crore children in
11.40 lakh institutions across the country. Apart from promoting access and
retention, the Mid Day Meal Scheme has also contributed to social and gender
equity. It has helped in preventing classroom hunger, promoting school
participation and fostering social equality and enhancing gender equality.
Norms for Mid Day Meal Scheme
i) Calorific Value of Mid Day Meals: The cooked mid day meal consists of 100
grams of wheat/rice, 20 grams of pulses, 50 grams of vegetables and 5 grams of
oil/fat and provides 450 calories of energy and 12 grams of protein at primary
stage. For upper primary stage children, it consists of 150 grams of wheat/rice,
30 grams of pulses, 75 grams of vegetables and 7.5 gram of oil/fat and provides
700 calories of energy and 20 grams of proteins.
ii) Cooking cost under MDM Scheme: The cooking cost covers the expenditure for
pulses, vegetables, cooking oils, condiments, fuel etc. The rate of cooking cost
from July, 2016 is ` 4.13 per child per day for Primary and ` 6.18 per child per
day for Upper Primary. The cooking cost is shared between the centre and the
states in the ratio of 60:40. for non-NER States and UTs with legislature, 100 per
cent for remaining UTs and 90:10 for NER states and 3 Himalayan states viz.,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand.