HIGHLIGHTS
Academic * Various aspects of quality management received continued focus and additional measures initiated for better learning and supervision including increased number of Personal Contact Programmes; replacement of Computer Marked Assessment by Tutor Marked Assessment, Tele-co- nferencing; television and radio slots; and developing regional and field level student support services.
* Recognition to NOS courses was received from 10 more Universities and 2 Boards of Education. As on 31.3.95, NOS had received recogni- tion from 85 Boards/Universities/ other Certifying Institutions.
* New vocational subjects added at secondary level included Word Processing, Jute Production Technology, Carpentry, Solar Energy Technician, Bio-gas Energy Technician, Laundry Services, Bakery and Confectionaries.
* New vocational subjects added at senior secondary level included Word Processing, Plant Protection, Water Management for Crop Production, Oyster Mushroom Production Technology, Furniture and Cabinet Making, Electroplating Accommodation Services, Catering Management, Food Processing, and Play Centres.
* A number of new vocational courses in Home Science and Management, Health and Paramedical, Secretarial, Business and Commerce and Miscellaneous groups were identified and developed.
* 25 Audio-video programmes were produced including 12 audio programmes each in Hindi and English for secondary course and one radio spot on NOS.
* Two All-India competitions, one essay and poster competition each were organised.
Projects * Projects were launched on Open Basic Education, Life Enrichment and Continuing Education, Regional Languages, Developing Learning Skills, Multi-lingual Question Bank, Student Support Services, Human Resource Development,and Planning Monitoring and Evaluation.
* A graded three level course corresponding to Preparatory, Primary and Elementary levels is being developed under the Open Basic Education.
* The work on curriculum development was initiated in three courses, namely, Science For All Health For All and Women Development and Empowerment.
* A landmark was reached by launching the first regional language programme through Bengali medium.
* Detailed curriculum has been formulated and a set of two draft modules prepared on developing reading skills.
* By the end of the year, the item pool under Multi-lingual Question Bank consisted of approximately 9,250 items in the English version and 3,900 items in Hindi Version in
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different subjects of the Secondary level.
* A situational analysis of Open Schooling in India; cost analysis of Open Learning system at the school level; a graduate feed back survey; and an analysis of the socioeconomic status of women candidates seeking admission to NOS courses were undertaken.
Students Enrolment and Profile
Academic Courses * An all time record number of 66,635 students were enrolled during the year against 62,283 students in 1993-94.
* The highest enrolment was from Delhi (30%) followed by Haryana (22%), West Bengal (13%) and Uttar Pradesh (6%).
* Region-wise, the highest enrolment was in northeastern region (64%), followed by eastern region (16%), north-eastern region (11%) and western region (6%). Lowest participation was from southern region (2.40 %). * Of the total number of enrolled students,the highest enrolment was in secondary course (55%), followed by senior secondary course (44%). The enrolment in Bridge Course was low (1%).
* The participation of students belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes was 14% and 11.50% respectively. These categories together with the women students accounted for nearly 52% of the students who we're given substantial amounts of subsidies to the tune of Rs.82.00 lakhs in their fees.
* The ratio of male-female students was 65% and 35% respectively.
* Highest enrolment was in the age group of 17-19 years (44%), followed by the group of 20 years and above (33%). The enrolment in the age group of 14-16 years was lowest (23%).
* Haryana State Open School became functional during the current year. The project was designed by National Open School. Within a sigh Memorandum of Understanding the HOS uses curriculum and material developed in NOS.
Haryana State Open School enrolled more than 14,000 students. To that extent, more than 80,000 students in the country studied through National Open School curriculum and material.
Vocational Courses * 1,335 students only were enrolled during the year against 2,670 during the preceding year.
* State-wise, the highest participation was from Andhra Pradesh (36%), followed by Delhi (28%).
* Barring the courses of Secretarial Practice and one-year courses of Cutting, Tailoring and Dress Making; and Library Clerk which attracted more students, there was a general decline in enrolment to other vocational courses during the year.
* One of the most innovative practices in National Open School is vocational courses/subjects offered in combination with other academic subjects at the secondary and senior secondary levels. A total of 16,794 (25.2%) of all the students enrolled in secondary and senior secondary levels chose one or more vocational/skill subjects. Including the students who chose vocational course as stand-alone subjects along with teh students in secondary and senior secondary levels, during 1994-95 18,129 (27%) students offered vocational sub- jects.
Student Support Services * The number of accredited institutions both AIs and AVIs, rose to 400 as on 31.3.95 from 345 only on 31.3.94. These included 357 AIs and 43 AVIs.
* The AIs are located all over the country excepting in the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakshdeep, 31 Study Centres in West Bengal have been accredited for Bengali medium.
* The AVIs are located in 16 States and UTs, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
* During the year, 21 AIs enrolled more than 500 student each and one Al enrolled as high as 2,897 students. On the other hand, 67 AIs could register less than 50 students each.
* Skeleton regional services on project basis were started at
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Calcutta in eastern region.
* About 100 academic facilitators were identified and many of them are already in position.
Networking of Open Schools * The state governments of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal have decid- ed to set up State Open Schools in their states on the basis of de- tailed project reports prepared by NOS. The NOS sanctioned a total grant of Rs. 40 lakhs, as seed money at the rate of Rs. 20 lakhs per State Open School to the above states.
Material Production and Distribution * During the year, about 30 lakhs books of nearly 430 titles were printed. In addition, about 4 lakh books of 229 titles were printed for the students of Haryana Open Schools.
* The total expenditure under paper and printing head was of the order of Rs. 2.13 crores which represented 25% of the total expenditure of NOS during the year.
* Printing of despatches in Bangla and some other regional languages was undertaken.
Examinations * A total number of 98,323 candidates appeared in two public examinations for academic courses and 1,862 candidates appeared in the examinations for the vocational courses.
* The total number of students certified during the year rose to 34,026 from 25,213 in the previous year.
* Of 16,966 students certified in secondary examination during the year, 53 percent obtained marks below 45%, another 39 percent above 45% to 60%, and remaining 8 percent secured more than 60% marks.
* Of 17,060 students certified in senior secondary examination during the year, 56 percent obtained less than 45% marks. Of the remaining, 38 percent students secured above 45% to 60% marks and only 6 percent got more than 60% marks.
* In the case of vocational examinations, 1,258 students representing 68% of the total number of students were certified during the year.
Human Resource Development * During the year, NOS organised 36 training programmes/ seminars/ workshops/conferences in which 1,186 functionaries participated for 2,977 programme-person-days against 15 programmes only during the preceding year in which 200 functionaries participated for less then 700 programme-person-days.
* Some of the important programmes organised during the year in- cluded:
i) Orientation programmes for Co-ordinators of AIs.
ii) National Expert Seminar on 'Open Schooling- Breaking New Grounds'.
iii) International Study Visit-cum-Conference on 'Planning and Management of Open Schooling'.
iv) Round Table Conference on Continuing Education for Neo-literates.
v) National Seminar on Vocational Courses in Health and Para-medical areas.
vi) Regional Languages Workshops.
vii) National Seminar on Facilitation.
viii) Regional Conferences for Coordinators of AIs
* A number of staff members participated in computer operations and management development programmes.
* Senior Graphic Artist was awarded Senior Fellowship in Graphic Art for two years by the Government of India.
* One faculty member participated in an international study visit- cum-seminar in Australia and four faculty members participated in international workshop/conference in New Zealand.
International Study Visit * As a follow up of E-9 Summit and Delhi Declaration which contained joint Initiative on Distance Education as one of the major components, NOS organized a 15 day Study Visit-cum-International Conference on Planning and Management of Open Schooling. The participants observed in a joint
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signed statement "Indian Open Schooling System is robust, viable and feasible. NOS has gained significant experience. Countries planning to set up open schools would stand to benefit from attachment to National Open School for a month or more."
Administration
Personnel * As on 31.3.95, staff in position was 132 against the total cadre strength of 159. In addition, 26 project staff and around 48 daily wage/contract staff were employed.
* NOS Service Rules (Part I) were approved and came into force w.e.f. 2.6.94.
* Project Staff Rules were liberalised to include payment of medical allowance to the project staff at par with regular staff.
* Financial powers of key administrative functionaries were increased and fresh delegations of financial powers was made to academic and other staff.
* The rate of scholarship to the children of NOS employees for each class from VI to XII were raised to a uniform rate of Rs.100/- p.m. in place of earlier graded rates ranging from Rs.40/- to Rs.60/- p.m.
* Staff conveyance service was started on 5 different routes for NOS staff to and fro NOS office at a subsidised rate.
Land and Buildings * Alternate use of 2 acres land already acquired at NODIA was considered for construction of warehouse and mailing facilities and request made to the Ministry of Human Resource Development for allotment of 20 acres of land for developing a separate NOS campus.
* The warehousing was increased from 12,200 sq.ft. to 16,800 sq.ft approximately by the end of the year to cope with the increasing needs for storage of paper and study materials.
Finance * A total grant of Rs.340.00 lakhs both under plan (Rs.306.00 lakhs) and non-plan (Rs.34.00 lakhs) was received during the year against the total net grant of Rs.178.82 lakhs during 1993-94.
* The income from fees during the year was Rs. 641.86 lakhs against Rs. 494.48 lakhs during 1993-94.
* Total expenditure during the year aggregated to Rs. 810.29 lakhs against Rs. 625.43 lakhs during 1993-94.
* Resource generation by NOS represented 79 percent of the total expenditure during the year. The support from the government was limited to 21% only.
Computer 2
* During the year, new management areas of computer application included complete publication management of study material, store management for consumable/ non-consumable items, and library management.
* The Computer Centre continued to render major services connected with admissions, material distribution, examinations, DTP jobs and mass production of letters.
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