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The NOS has been pursuing its mission of reaching the unreached for quite some time. It is the only apex organisation working at national level through Distance and Open Learning Mode from Primary to Senior Secondary stages of education.
The NOS has been providing opportunities for continuing education to those who have missed the opportunities to complete school and developmental education through courses and programmes of general, life enrichment and vocational education from primary to pre-degree level. It has recently taken initiative of launching the Open Basic Education (OBE) programme as an alternative educational programme for neo-literates, school drop-outs/left-outs and NFE completers. The NOS would provide resource support to the identified agencies for implementation of its OBE scheme. The OBE for adults (age group 14+) will inter alia strive for development and implementation of structured programmes like quality of life improvement programme, income generation programme and programme of individual interests. A beginning in this direction has already been made in collaboration with the National Literacy Mission (NLM).
The NOS is working on an innovative scheme of On-Demand Examination/Walk-in Examination. Under this scheme, whenever a learner feels confident taking an examination, he/she can walk into an NOS accredited institution and take the examination in any subject(s) as per his/her choice. This is quite in contrast to the existing examination pattern in which a learner has no choice with regard to dates and timings of examination. The rigidity in the existing examination system is a serious stumbling block to a learner who wants to set his own pace of learning. Among other things, the On-Demand Examination (ODE) scheme will relieve the candidates from fear of examinations. It is for the first time that the results of NOS examinations of April 2000 for Secondary, Senior Secondary and Vocational Courses were placed on the NOS web site www.nos.org. This facilitated the students in India and abroad to know their results on the same day.
Certain other developments and progress of various programmes of NOS has been reported in this issue of the News Bulletin. I hope that the readers will enjoy this issue.
The reform in the examination system has been a subject of consistent consideration by various Committees and Commissions appointed by the Government of India during pre-and post-independence period. One of the significant features highlighted by these Committees and Commissions is that the examination pattern only tests rote memory.
As a sequel to the National Policy on Education 1986 (as amended in 1992), the Programme of Action (POA), 1992 laid emphasis on testing higher thinking abilities. It stipulated that emphasis will be laid on testing of expected levels of achievement of a variety of learning objectives in order to ensure due importance to higher abilities of understanding, application, analysis, synthesis, judgement and parallel parameters and not only to memory. The POA highlighted that whatever changes have been introduced in the school and university examinations at the instance of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) respectively, their impact is not perceptible. The POA further envisaged the establishment of the National Evaluation Organisation (NEO) as a quality control mechanism to organise nation-wide test on a voluntary basis so that norms can be evolved for comparability of performance and also for conducting independent tests.
The National Open School (NOS) is the largest open school in the world in terms of enrolment, study centres, course designing and curriculum-self instructional material develop-ment. Prof. N.K. Ambasht, Chairman, NOS has envisioned an innovative rather revolutionary scheme titled On-Demand Examination/Walk-in Exami-nation. The On-Demand Exami-nation (ODE) Scheme envisages to give freedom to learner to appear in the examination in the subject(s) of his/her choice whenever he/she feels confident taking an examination. This would provide the candidate choice to walk into an NOS accredited institution and take the examination on dates and timing that may suit him/her. Thus the NOS learner can set his/her own pace of learning which is a key factor of any distance and open learning programme. Under this system, the NOS has designed a software to generate a test paper out of test items in the Item Bank stored in the computer. The software has been so designed that each student gets a different question paper. Each item in a test is graded and matched with respect to difficulty value. A test would be generated only after the roll number of an examinee is fed into the computer. This rules out the possibility of leakage of the test paper. Further, in this system, there is no fear of copying, no requirement for an invigilator, centre superintendent, raid parties etc. Besides, pre-examination stress on learners is considerably less. A question paper would consist of long answer, short answer, very short answer and multiple choice questions. Examinee's thinking abilities-knowledge, understanding and application-would be tested through the question paper. The student has an option as to whether he/she wants to do the test on-line or off-line. If on-line, test results are given immediately. For off-line test, result would be made available to an examinee in a couple of days.
A two-day conference was organised by the National Open School at the NCERT Campus, New Delhi on 10th and 11th May, 2000. The objectives of this conference inter-alia were to demonstrate the feasibility and functionality of the innovative scheme - On-Demand Examination - and to seek guidance from experts to operationalise the scheme. A number of eminent educationists including Acharya Ram Murti, Prof. Amrik Singh, Prof. J.S. Rajput, Prof. C.L. Anand, Prof. R.G. Misra, Prof. K.G. Rastogi, Prof. H.S. Srivastava, Prof. Pritam Singh, Prof. R.M. Kalra, Prof. D.V. Sharma and Prof. B.R. Goyal participated in this conference. The conference was inaugurated by Shri Dwarko Sundarani ji- an eminent social scientist and social reformer and Chairman, Samanwaya Ashram, Bodh Gaya, Bihar. After inauguration, Prof. N.K. Ambasht, Chairman, National Open School, assisted by Shri S.K. Prasad, Computer Programmer NOS, and Shri Gautam Jha, Software Consultant, made power point presentation regarding various aspects of the On-Demand Examination Scheme including its viability. The delegates of the conference were thrilled when they themselves generated question papers with the help of the software. They themselves saw that different question papers generated out of items in the Item Bank did not have any common question. The scope and security aspects of the system were also demonstrated. This included authorised access to the system using a password. No question set could be generated without a valid registration number. This innovative programme "On-Demand Exami-nation" of the NOS was appreciated by the entire house. The delegates deliberated at length different aspects of the scheme. Some highlights of the observations and suggestions given in the conference are as follows.
The On-Demand Examination Scheme (ODES) is a significant innovation and may be operationalised after conducting a pilot study. Based on the analysis of the feedback, the ODES Framework may be finalised in consultation with an Expert Group.
The question papers may be generated with the help of Computer Programme. Keeping in view the feasibility aspect, to begin with, the Item Bank for ODES may generally include items pertaining to knowledge, understanding and application. The skill items may be included as per need, say for examinations in vocational subjects.
Systematic Item analysis may be done before the items are transferred from the Item Pool to the Item Bank.
Great care should be taken to prepare "Key" to question paper(s).
The computer software for ODES should be user friendly.
The feasibility of centralization in respect of on-line examination may be studied and necessary provision in the ODES Framework may be made accordingly.
The ODES Framework may take special care to minimize malpractices in examinations.
While preparing the Framework for ODES, diversity in languages may also be kept in view. However, the tests under ODES may be kept culture free.
The NOS, in its capacity as the national level apex organisation in Open Schooling, may make efforts for setting standards for examinations in respect of Open Schooling courses.
The Framework for operationalisation of ODES may inter alia make appropriate provision of in-service training of concerned personnel, specially test administrators and evaluators of answer scripts. The training programme may be backed by suitable training package.
To begin with, On-Demand Examination may be operationalised at the Open Basic Education (OBE) level. The institutions/organizations accredited by the NOS may generally be the authorised Testing Centres for ODES.
As a sequel to On-Demand Examination, the NOS may prepare and operationalise a scheme of "On-Demand Admission" or "Walk-in-Admission".
The NOS may disseminate the concept and Framework of On-Demand Examination. It may share its experiences with State Open Schools in the first instance.
The experience and the advances made by the NOS may be shared with the NCERT and other such institutions.
Follow-Up Programme
As a follow up, the work is in progress on a pilot project at four identified testing centres and connecting these centres through WAN/E-mail.
A Step Towards Implementation of On-Demand Examination
Operationalisation of the On-Demand Examination Scheme inter alia requires a large pool of items from which, with the help of suitable software, a number of parallel question papers can be generated as and when demanded by the learners.
As a capacity building measure and to equip the faculty in this new endeavour, the NOS organised a 3-day orientation programme from 19 June and 21 to 22 June 2000 at its Headquarters. Two eminent Resource Persons (Prof. Pritam Singh and Prof. H.S. Srivastava with rich experience in Measurement and Evaluation) were invited to orient the NOS faculty in the following areas.
Learning objectives and specifications; and how to develop items based on specifications;
Items types : some do's and don'ts for item generation;
Essentials of good question paper; ensuring reliability and validity of items.
Prof. Pritam Singh highlighted the need for framing learning objectives on the basis of which the items could be developed with various specifications. He also touched upon the principles of content analysis and emphasised that the competency level as well as the difficulty level of each item should be kept in mind while developing the items. Different types of items in different types of tests were discussed in detail and faculty members were given working-lessons to frame items.
Prof. H.S. Srivastava discussed the essentials of a good question paper. He particularly focussed on matters such as the design of the question paper and preparation of a blueprint. He emphasised the points which were essential while designing a quality question paper like - competency level, content area, types of questions, difficulty level, marks allotted and estimated time required to solve the questions. He explained the conditions of equivalence of different items and discussed about the validity and reliability of each item. In the working session, the faculty members were required to set a blueprint on given parameters.
"Workshop on Multi-Media Course Development for Open Schooling" is one of the three projects to be undertaken by NOS with the assistance/collaboration with Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver (Canada).
The first phase of the aforesaid project was conducted by the faculty of the Computer Unit of NOS from 12th to 16th June, 2000 as a Training Programme on General Awareness in Multi-Media. Fifty six participants attended the programme. The participants included faculty members from NOS (Tutors, Assistant Directors, Senior Executive Officers and Officers from State Open Schools in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala). The five day interactive training programme covered (i) Computer Fundamentals, (ii) Windows-98, (iii) Multi Media: Concept and Elements (iv) Graphics and Sound, and (v) Multi Media Presentation. A Training Package prepared by the faculty of the Computer Unit was supplied to the participants. The Chairman NOS gave a certificate of participation to each participant on the last day of the training programme. The observations and suggestions of the participants were discussed in the valedictory session.
Another batch of NOS officers is likely to undergo General Aware-ness in Multi-Media before the second phase of the Workshop is undertaken after apprising the COL of the usefulness of the first phase and on receipt of necessary assistance for in-depth training in Multi-Media under the second phase.
The project is being conducted with the main objective of developing reading material on life, culture and value system of tribal communities in India. The following titles in draft form have been prepared.
The Oraon or Kurukh
The Munda Culture
Ho, Bharat Ke Adivasi Bandhu
The Santal or Horoko
Chenchu
The Bhils of Rajasthan
The Gonds of Mandhu
The Khasi of Meghalaya
It has been visualised that contents being developed under the project "People of India" may be integrated with the learning materials of social sciences and other appropriate courses of studies.
During May 2000, field studies in some of the areas of the Himalayan region such as Kurseong, North Bengal and some areas of Khasi and Jaintia Hills in the State of Meghalaya were conducted.
A Committee has been constituted for working out modalities for integrating the content with related courses of studies at different levels.
For the first time the Date Sheet of Secondary and Sr. Secondary Examinations was published in all the important national dailies enabling the students throughout the country to know the exact date of the commencement of examinations, their timings, and the dates of examination in each respective subject.
The National Open School (NOS) conducted its April-May 2000 examinations for a record number of 1,70,395 students for Secondary and Senior Secondary all over India. The results were announced four days ahead of pre-poned schedule in order to mitigate the problems faced by the students for seeking admission to other institutions.
98,951 students appeared for the Secondary and 71,444 students appeared for the Senior Secondary examinations. 31,819 students in Secondary and 13,024 students in Sr. Secondary were declared qualified for certification.
For the first time, the result of NOS examinations of April 2000 for Secondary, Senior Secondary and Vocational Courses was placed on the NOS official web site "http://www.nos.org". This facilitated the students in India and abroad to know their results on the same day.
In order to see the result on the Net, one has to visit the NOS official Internet site "http://www.nos.org". At the home page, a hyperlink with "Result 2000" is provided. Clicking this hyperlink will take the user to an information page asking for the option for Secondary, Senior Secondary or Vocational Courses results. Clicking this option will take the user to the page where he/she has to feed in his/her Roll number. The result of the student would be displayed immediately from the result database.
A National Meet of the Regional Directors of National Open School was held on 10th and 11th April, 2000 at the NOS Head quarters New Delhi. Among other things, it was decided that necessary action for making changes/corrections in the particulars of candidate (name, parent's name, address, subjects, medium of instructions, change of study centre and issue of duplicate identity card) will be taken by the concerned Regional Centres. The old admission forms were sent to Regional Centres to facilitate the work of corrections and carrying forward the credit of previous examination.
The cases for change/correction of date of birth will be verified at the level of the Regional Centre and their recommendations with relevant documents will be sent to the NOS Headquarters for final decision.
An NOS delegation comprising of Prof. N.K. Ambasht, Chairman, Shri S.S. Gill, Secretary, Shri S.K. Misra, Joint Director (Vocational), and Ms. Bhawna Dhyani, Assistant Director participated in the first World Education Market (WEM) Exhibition held at Vancouver from 24 to 27 May, 2000. About 2,200 professionals and 1080 companies from 64 countries participated in the Exhibition. The event attracted a wide range of people and organizations, new media and internet companies, universities, colleges, schools, publishers, distance learning institutes, television producers and distributors, top level buyers, educational and governmental decision makers and industry leaders.
Through its comprehensive conference programme, WEM offered opportunity for discussion and debate on educational marketplace issues with key figures from around the world.
The NOS stall was visited by a large number of people and its activities in the area of Open Learning at the School Stage were viewed with great curiosity as it was the only organization working through Distance and Open Learning mode from Primary to Senior Secondary levels. Its course materials on CD Rom attracted great attention.
A workshop of lesson writers was organised at the Kurukshetra University from 1 to 6 May 2000. Fourteen lesson writers and six Resource Persons attended the workshop. Two Departments of the Kurukshetra University viz., (i) the Indology Department, and (ii) the Department of Ancient History and Archeology actively collaborated in this task. Later on the lessons were reviewed in a meeting of the Review Committee on 28 June 2000.
New Vocational Course Launched
The National Open School has launched a new Vocational Course in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). It is a one year package course comprising of three papers (Code No. 439, 440 and 441).
New Admission Sessions for Vocational Courses
September - October (last date being 31 October)
March - April (last date being 30 April)
Vocational Examination
4000 candidates were registered to appear in the May 2000 Vocational Examinations held at 75 examination centres.
Regional Meet of Coordinators of the Study Centres
A Regional Meet of the Coordinators of the Accredited Institutions (AIs) in the North Eastern Region was held on 10 June 2000 at Guwahati. Fifty one coordinators of the AIs (Study Centres) of the region attended the meeting. The meeting deliberated on several issues/problems faced by the Study Centres of NOS. The interaction of the Coordinators with the Chairman NOS and the Heads of the Department of NOS proved useful in sorting out problems. Referring to roles and functions and programmes and activities of NOS, the Chairman NOS informed that a programme of Open Basic Education was recently undertaken under the Open Schooling system. Among other things, emphasis was being given on proper implementation of Personal Contact Programme (PCP). Suggestions for stream-lining the implementation of Open Schooling programme were also given.
Prof. N.K. Ambasht dwelt at length the mission and objectives of NOS, features of Open Learning, PCP, courses and programmes provided by NOS and examinations. He called upon the Coordinators to be conscious of their duties and responsibilities.
Proposal for setting up of the State Open School (SOS)
The matter regarding setting up of a State Open School (SOS) in Assam has been under consideration for quite some time. The Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR) prepared by the Committee constituted by the Government of Assam proposed establishment of a body titled “State Open School, Assam” (SOSA). According to TEFR, the SOSA would inter alia serve:
Children from poor sections of society.
Children working for livelihood in preference to attending classes in scheduled hours.
Slow learners who cannot keep pace with the average or the above average.
House-wives who had left their studies mid-way and are willing to pursue studies during free time.
Failed candidates of the School Final Examinations.
In the context of setting up of a State Open School (SOS), a high level team of NOS headed by its Chairman, Prof. N.K. Ambasht, held discussion on 9 June 2000 with representatives of the State Education Department. The meeting recommended to the Government of Assam for setting up of the State Open School (SOSA), in the light of the TEFR, from the current academic session. It was suggested that SOSA may take up a minimum programme at the initial stage starting with the secondary stage. The meeting suggested that the study materials may be prepared in Assamese medium first and then translated into other required media in subsequent years.
Prof. Ambasht laid greater emphasis on creating a self-learning society in the pursuit of continuing education and to create a movement for Open Schooling in this part of the country.
The Regional Centre remained actively involved in conducting NOS examinations held during April-May 2000 in 48 Examination Centres in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In addition, the NOS examination was conducted in 20 Examination Centres in West Bengal and one Examination Centre in New Delhi for the Regional Medium candidates.
The Regional Centre arranged Evaluation Centres for evaluation of more than one lakh answer scripts received from the examination centres in eastern and north eastern regions.
Besides the examinations related work, activities such as monitoring the work of the Accredited Institutions of NOS and attending the queries of students, parents and general public continued.
The NOS Regional Centre, Hyderabad conducted the April-May 2000 examination for approximately 20,000 students covering Senior Secondary and Secondary (English Medium) and Secondary (Telugu medium). The activities inter alia included (i) appointment of OSDs and (ii) processing of answer scripts.
The Regional Director as convener/team member inspected several institutes in the region that have applied for accreditation with NOS. The Regional Director accompanied the Chairman NOS to attend the Seminar on Indian History and Culture organised by Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning organised at the White Field, Bangalore from 14 to 17 May 2000.
Extensive coverage about versatile academic and vocational courses of NOS given through leading local media proved useful. Quite a large number of candidates contacted the NOS Regional Centre in order to seek details of NOS programmes. The Regional Centre issued intimation to all old students (whose registrations are valid) reminding them to register for the next examination.
The State Open School in Kerala is catering to students who could not be accommodated in +2 stage Schools. The concept ‘Open Schooling’ is gaining momentum. The NOS courses are also becoming popular.
Work on implementation of the project ‘Population and Development Education for Out of School Youth’ continued. The AIs and AVIs took preparatory steps for observing the World Population Day (11 July 2000).
In order to imbibe values for overall development of personality, the NOS Annual Activity Day was organised for the first time at the Shivalik Public School on March 2000. Students participated enthusiastically in various cultural programmes and athletic events. The Regional Director (NOS), Chandigarh, gave prizes and certificates and assured to strengthen such activities.
In the context of April/May 2000 examinations, the Regional Centres, NOS ensured smooth conduct of examinations and attended tasks such as fixation of examination centres, collection of examination fees, computerisation of data of 29000 students, appointment of Officers-on-Special Duty, and Secrecy work.
The Regional Centre, National Open School, Allahabad started functioning from 6th March 2000 with the appointment of the Regional Director, Dr. Usha Srivastava.
Besides selection of new examination centres, the Regional Director visited several examination centres and gave guidance wherever needed. Certain other activities of the Regional Centre during April - June 2000 were as follows:
Inspection of more than ten schools that have applied for accreditation with NOS.
Contacts were made with public and authorities explaining the mission of NOS of reaching the unreached through Open Schooling system.
The Regional Centre celebrated the Health Day on 7th April 2000 and the Environment Day on 5th June 2000. Among other things, public awareness programmes were organised.
Regional Centre of the National Open School for Bihar State Inaugurated
The Regional Centre of the National Open School for Bihar State was inaugurated on 7 May 2000 by Dr. Ram Prakash Mahto, Minister of the State for Secondary Education in a function organised at L.N. Mishra Institute of Economic Development, Patna. The Minister stressed the need to strengthen various programmes of NOS in Bihar and hoped that the number of Study Centres of NOS would be increased substantially in Bihar State. Earlier Shri S.S. Gill, Secretary, NOS welcomed the Hon'ble Minister.
The inaugural ceremony was presided over by Shri Madan Mohan Jha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Prof. N.K. Ambasht, Chairman, NOS impressed upon the need for opening of the State Open Schools. It was also informed that Shri N.P. Narayan had joined as the Regional Director, NOS, Patna.
In the afternoon, the ceremony turned into a forum for open discussion on different issues related to NOS. Dr. S.S. Sangal, Director (Academic), Shri S.S. Gill, Secretary and Shri P.P. Singh, Controller of Examinations, NOS enlightened the gentry on different issues related to Open Schooling. Shri Vijaya Prakash, Secretary, Higher Education, Bihar, Prof. R.P. Singh and several others also participated in the open session. Among other things, suggestions were given to improve the quality of Personal Contact Programme (PCP) and examination system, and streamlining of admissions in the Study Centres. 52 Co-ordinators, including three Assistant Coordinators, from 49 Accredited Institutions participated in the programme.
OBE Programme launched by NOS in Bihar State
The Open Basic Education Programme was formally launched by the National Open School (NOS) in Bihar State on 1 June 2000 in a one day workshop of voluntary agencies working in the area of Non Formal Education. While inaugurating the Workshop, Dr. S.S. Sangal, Director (Academic), National Open School, elaborated the importance of Open Basic Education Programme under NOS umbrella. He emphasised the need of open schooling for non-school going, school drop-outs and working children of 6-14 age group and informed that teaching material for class-3, Class-5 and Class-8 levels had been prepared.
Dr. H.L. Sharma, Senior Executive Officer, NOS illustrated the teaching-learning material to the personnel from the participating voluntary agencies. The scope of adoptation/translation of the material for different regions of Bihar state was also dealt with in the workshop.
Shri N.P. Narayan, Regional Director, National Open School, Bihar, Patna told the participating voluntary agencies that NOS would be providing all possible help to the voluntary agencies of Bihar in organising workshops for material development for OBE as also for providing technical support for evaluation of OBE learners.
Different agencies like the Department of Mass Education, the State Non-Formal Resource Centre, the SCERT and UNICEF also participated in the workshop and point of convergence and co-ordination was worked-out. The new move of the National Open School for OBE learners was applauded by different voluntary agencies as well as officers of different departments.
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