Patna, Jan. 14: The state government is all set to introduce a board to cater to school dropouts.
The board would be similar to National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), also known as National Open School.
Human resource development department principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh told The Telegraph: “The government is going to introduce a bill in the next cabinet session for constituting a State Institute of Open Schooling (SIOS).” Once the cabinet clears the bill, the department would start the final process, he added.
Singh said the idea behind constituting the SIOS is to cater to students who are out of school but come under various government schemes such as Hunar Yojana and Auzaar Yojana. Many children in the state, mainly from economically backward categories, are receiving training under various state and central government schemes. But these students lack proper educational certificate.
The idea behind the introducing SIOS is to provide proper certificates to them. The certificate issued by SIOS will be equivalent to certificates provided by Bihar State Examination Board and other boards. SIOS will provide vocational, life enriching and community-oriented courses besides general and academic courses at secondary and senior secondary level. Singh added: “After the constitution of SIOS, the state government will be able to introduce its syllabus in open schooling format. It will also check the flow of funds from state to Centre as many students get registered with NIOS for getting certificates.”
SIOS will be based on NIOS as the student learning strategies includes learning through printed self-instrumental material, audio and video programmes, participating in personal contact programmes and tutor marked assignments The school would also have a half-yearly magazine.
The idea behind setting up SIOS was first tabled by the state government in 2006 but it did not see the light of day. However, now it seems that the state government is serious about SIOS after the success of Hunar Yojna and Auzar Yojana.
