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Date sent:        Mon, 20 Sep 1999 20:12:55 +0500
From:             Third World Network Features 
 
OPEN SCHOOLING OFFERS HOPE TO THOSE PUSHED
OUT OF INDIAN EDUCATION
 
In India, a country where an educational system far removed from local
life makes millions into drop-outs, the National Open School offers a
second-chance education.
 
By Frederick Noronha
 
Taman is 17 years old, mentally handicapped and partially blind. Yet
she has been able to complete her secondary-level education and is now
in her senior secondary. She already knows how to operate computers
for word-processing.
 
She got a chance to enter school and pass exams thanks to the National
Open School (NOS), an institution in India which wants to make
educational opportunities flexible so that they reach those who are
otherwise deprived of them.
 
NOS, an autonomous institution started by the Indian government nine
years ago, aims at providing opportunities in distance education and
open learning. Open schooling is an alternative (or is complementary)
to formal education. Besides the NOS, India also has the Indira Gandhi
National Open University which offers education at the university
level through a similar format.
 
NOS is currently searching for new partners to spread its programmes
of continuing education, distance education and also technical
education. It is also keen to get more centres to run its vocational
programmes, which offer practical-education in a large number of
subjects.
 
We have about 400,000 students on our rolls and 130,000 annual
enrolments. But this is only a drop in the ocean. We are searching for
partners and need to do much more if India is to achieve something,
said NOS chairman Prof Mohan B Menon. To reach out to more youngsters
in the country, NOS wants good, formal schools to come forward and
start NOS students. This offers a good opportunity for schools to
reach out and give a chance to youngsters who would otherwise be
deprived of learning. Its a second-chance education. But were trying
our best not to make this a second-rate education, added Prof Menon.
 
The NOS form of education has openness in many respects claims Prof.
Menon. Firstly, there is no maximum age limit for students  the oldest
NOS student was 89 years old! In one case, a father and his son both
sat for the same exams together. Besides, the NOS offers flexibility
in the choice of subjects a student can opt for. Students who dont
like mathematics, for example, dont necessarily have to take it. Those
who do not find languages to their liking, can choose something else.
 
There is openness in other senses too  in terms of the duration of
study (students can spread their studies over several years if they
are busy working or lack time). NOS students also do not have to
appear for all their papers at one sitting. They can do so in
installments, as their time permits.
 
NOS exams are held twice each year, in May and November. Students are
allowed to appear in one, two or all subjects. Credits are accumulated
till the certification criteria are fulfilled. Each candidate can
avail of as many as nine chances to appear in public exams.
 
NOS also offers an interesting system of transferring credits. If a
student from a certain recognised local open school has passed in at
least one subject, he or she can get the credits of a maximum of two
subjects transferred, provided these subjects are offered in the NOS
programme. He or she can then pass the other subjects through the NOS.
 
We recognise the role of the NOS in taking basic education to groups
that would not have otherwise had access to it, said Dr Gajaraj
Dhanarajan, president of the Commonwealth of Learning, an organisation
based in Vancouver-Canada, which aims at promoting learning in the
former British colonies which are part of the grouping today called
the Commonwealth.
 
Dr Dhanarajan, a Malaysian of Indian origin, pointed out that 35
million children in this country simply lack access to basic
education. Classrooms are an unknown concept to them. Theres very
little chance of changing things (within the present system). We have
to take the classroom to the child, he told this writer.
 
Prof Menon said here that even fifty years after Independence, India
is yet to notch up creditable achievements in various fields of
education literacy, universal enrolment, lowering the drop-out rate,
improving quality and making the system more relevant. Fifty per cent
of students (in the Indian educational system) fail at the secondary
level. They often dont continue with their studies. Only 6% of the
youth in the 18-23 year bracket go in for higher education in India,
pointed out Prof Menon.
 
Eight states in India have already opened up their own open schools.
These are Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab,
Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka. NOS also has 390 study centres
all over India, most of them based in mainstream educational
institutions.
 
NOS recently launched a programme called SAIED, or Special Accredited
Institutions for Education of the Disadvantaged. It is meant to take
education to people with handicaps  orthopedic, hearing or visual
impairment, multiple handicaps, learning disabilities and even mental
retardation. Such centres will also focus on taking education to
street children, drug addicts, working children and rural women.
 
NOS is also focussing on groups that especially need educational
facilities in India. These include girls and women, scheduled castes
and tribes, rural people and the urban poor, the unemployed,
part-employed and those seeking better jobs, and those in the older
than the younger (15-35) age bracket.
 
Catering to the needs of such diverse groups are equally varied
courses such as the bridge course, (which helps drop-outs get back
into mainstream education); the secondary and senior secondary courses
(for regular students); the Basic Education Course (for beginners) and
Life Enrichment Course (for non-job-seekers who simply want to enjoy
the pleasure of learning).
 
Vocational courses are offered in a range of subjects. Six month
courses teach youngsters about house-wiring, radio, tape-recorder and
TV repairing, tailoring, dress making, plumbing and beauty culture.
There are also package courses of one-years duration for office
employees, and stand-alone courses in fields as diverse as solar
energy technology, bio-gas energy technology and plant protection.
Third World Network Features.
 
About the author: Frederick Noronha is a Goa-based journalist who
writes frequently on developmental issues.
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