STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Central government has asked the Assam government to take steps for popularizing open school education in the state to ensure that 100 per cent gross enrollment ratio (GER) from preoschool to secondary school level is achieved by 2030 for school and college dropout students.
In this context, the Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) has directed colleges of the state, through the Director of Higher Education, to upload information or profiles of the Assam State Open School to create awareness about Open and Distance Learning (ODL) in general and the relevant courses offered by AHSEC in particular.
The AHSEC has been offering open schooling courses since 2010 for dropout students, working adults, housewives and others based on the syllabus of the National Institute of Open School (NIOS).
In June this year, the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Union Ministry of Education adopted a recommendation that all states have to achieve 100 per enrollment of children in schools, including open ones, by 2030.
The Department of School Education and Literacy then wrote a letter to the state Education Department that "a large number of students drop out from formal schooling system every year. They cannot continue their schooling through regular schools due to various hurdles. If this continues, these dropout students will be our future uneducated adults after a few years. Most of the neo-literates from literacy programmes cannot join formal schooling. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) (NIOS and State Open School) is a great opportunity for all of them, but in absence of information about the ODL mode, they are unaware of the available opportunity. They remained illiterate. Such learners must know to continue education through ODL mode. One way to do this could be the inclusion of information of ODL in its formal schooling book."
The letter further said, "…the GER for grades 6-8 is 90.9 per cent, while for grades 9-10 and 11-12 it is only 79.3 per cent and 56.5 per cent respectively, indicating that a significant proportion of enrolled students drop out after grade 5 and especially after class 8. The top priority is to bring children into the educational fold as early as possible."
Citing NEP-2020 (National Education Policy-2020), the letter said, "To facilitate learning for all students, with special emphasis on Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGs), the scope of school education will be broadened to facilitate multiple pathways to learning involving both formal and non-formal education modes. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Programmes offered by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and the State Open Schools will be expanded and strengthened for meeting the learning needs of young people in India who are not able to attend a physical school."
The letter also asked the State government to let all local offices, institutions, citizen service centre in the village, the Education Department and its bodies etc., know about state open schools.
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