A woman in her late thirties is sitting with a textbook that she should have had access to twenty years ago in a study center in a mid-sized Indian city. The building itself is unremarkable, slightly worn at the edges, and the ceiling fans move slowly in the afternoon heat. The first time, she didn’t complete her education. Her education did not keep up with the speed of life. She has now registered with the National Institute of Open Schooling and is studying for her secondary exam on her own schedule and at her own speed. It’s possible that we’ve been measuring educational success incorrectly and that this is what it truly looks like.
In 1989, the Indian Ministry of Education founded the National Institute of Open Schooling, or NIOS for short. Although it rarely enjoys the same cultural prestige as CBSE and ICSE, it functions as an independent national board and is recognized by the government. To be honest, one of the more intriguing conflicts in Indian education is the difference between official status and public perception. Certificates from NIOS are legitimate. They are accepted by universities. They are acknowledged by employers. Nevertheless, the board remained in a sort of quiet corner of the discourse for years; it was helpful, expansive, and in some ways underappreciated.
One story is revealed by the numbers. In just the last five years, over 4.13 million students have enrolled. Every year, about 350,000 new students sign up. The network includes more than 7,400 study facilities in India and overseas, including facilities in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Its reach is remarkable for an institution that many urban middle-class families may not have personally experienced, reaching locations and individuals that traditional education just cannot.
The idea that not everyone’s life is planned around a school calendar is what NIOS does well, and this seems important to emphasize. NIOS was designed for all of these scenarios, and it has remained true to that goal: year-round athletes training, students coping with chronic illness, working adults who dropped out years ago, and children with disabilities who found rigid classroom systems challenging to navigate. Through it, Mary Kom received training. Legendary badminton player Pullela Gopichand also did. Talent and ambition don’t always fit neatly into a traditional school schedule, as the list of notable alumni suggests.
By any measure, the flexibility itself is exceptional. Languages, computer science, psychology, home science, and painting are just a few of the many subjects from which students can select between five and seven. They can switch subjects in the middle of the course if they aren’t working out. Exams are administered twice a year, and secondary and senior secondary students have access to an on-demand option for the remainder of the year. This structure seems to have been created by someone who genuinely considered the obstacles that prevent access to education and then made a methodical effort to remove them.
Whether NIOS receives adequate recognition for the scope of that endeavor is still up for debate. With e-content, online registration, and broadcast-based instruction via radio and television, the institution has embraced digital learning. These are substantial additions. A television broadcast of the course material is the difference between studying and not studying for a student in a remote area without dependable transportation.
As this has developed over the years, there is something subtly amazing about an institution that has never been trendy but has continuously stood up for the students that the system would otherwise overlook. Not every time does it make the news. It seldom produces the kind of passionate conversation that surrounds elite schools or competitive entrance exams. However, NIOS is fulfilling its purpose in that dilapidated study space, where a woman is returning to school on her own terms and the fan is moving overhead.
