Lok Sabha Question No. 2275 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-02
Subject: National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Sunil Kumar Pintu, Feroze Varun Gandhi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2275 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2021

## National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)

## †2275. SHRI SUNIL KUMAR PINTU: SHRI FEROZE VARUN GANDHI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  is  aware  that  most  of  the  centers  of  the  National  Institute  of open school if  (NIOS) are  not  functioning  while  huge  amount  of  funds  is  being  spent thereon every year;
- (b) if so, the reasons therefor along with the concrete measures being taken to streamline the functioning of study centers of NIOS;
- (c) whether the Government is planning to bring strict regulations concerning the NIOS to avoid false certification and if so, the steps taken in this regard;
- (d) whether the Government is planning to make changes to the schedule of NIOS exams and results  in  accordance  with  the  other  Boards  in  the  country  to  achieve  fair  admission process for higher education; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF EDUCATION ( SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN

## )

(a) and (b): The  National  Institute  of  Open  Schooling  (NIOS)  offers  courses  in  Open  and Distance  Learning  mode  through  its  study  centres  which  are  the  schools  affiliated  to  Central Board  of  Secondary  Education  (CBSE),  Council  for  Indian  School  Certificate  Examination (CISCE),  International  Baccalaureate  (IB),  Edexcel  (Pearson),  University  of  Cambridge  and other State Boards.   Accreditation is given to the study centres on the basis of stringent Standard Operating procedures and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is also signed between NIOS

and  Study  Centres.  Performance  of  the  Study  centres  are  reviewed  periodically  for  further extension  by  NIOS.  If  the  study  centres  are  not  fulfilling  the  terms  and  conditions  of Memorandum of  Understanding (MoU)  then  the  Study  centre  is  disaccredited  from  NIOS  by following due  procedure.

(c): National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), an autonomous Organisation, Ministry of Education does certification as per Bye-Laws Governing examinations and certifications 2012. For  certificate  verification,  the  old  records  are  already  uploaded  in  NIOS  website  since  1990. So, the verification can be done by entering the enrollment number of the concerned learner. The data  is  also  aligned  with  DigiLocker  and  accordingly  the  verification  of  the  result  documents could  also  be  done  through  DigiLocker.  In  case  of  any  dispute,  the  authentication  of  the documents  can  also  be  verified  by  the  Evaluation  Department. Usually,  the  employer (Govt./Private) gets the authentication of the documents from the NIOS Authority (Evaluation Department). NIOS certificates also contain water mark and QR code to avoid counterfeiting of the documents.

(d) and (e): NIOS  conducts  Public  exams  twice  in  a  year  in  the  month  of  March-April  & October-November every year. The learner gets nine (09) chances to appear in the exams till his/her certification.  Besides, the public exams, NIOS also provides opportunity to learners to appear in On Demand Exams (ODE) as and when the learner is ready for exams.  NIOS also provides  opportunity  to  the  learner  to  improve  their  performance  in  ODE  till  the  learners' satisfaction. NIOS continually evolves its system as per requirement.

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