Arjun Singh Launches Online Admission 2007 - Project
	14:49 IST

Union Minister for Human Resource Development (HRD), Shri Arjun Singh has launched online Admission 2007 – Project (Ni-On) of National Institute of Open Learning here today. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has initiated Online Admissions under its NIOS Online (Ni-On) Project from this year onwards. This unique facility, available for the first time in any Open Learning System in India, will facilitate the learners in directly accessing NIOS. It will lead to a rapid increase in the numbers of learner enrolment with NIOS and thereby assist the Government’s effort of Universalisation of Secondary Education. Under Ni-On Project, NIOS has tailor-made ‘3’ Streams of Online admissions for meeting the requirements of different groups of its potential learners. Under Stream-1 all the learners can access NIOS directly Online through its website (www.nos.org) for the purpose of seeking admission. The choice of Study Centres will be purely that of the learners and they will not be forced to go to any particular Study Centre. Stream-2 has been designed to save one year of all those who have been unsuccessful in CBSE/ ICSE/Other recognized State Education Boards. These learners can seek Online Admissions in the Stream ‘2’ and also appear in the Public Examinations of October-November 2007, whose results will be declared by December 2007 itself, thereby saving almost one year for such learners. Stream-3 of Online Admissions also caters to the learners covered by Stream ‘2’ but allows them an additional advantage of appearing in On Demand Examination (ODE) at Secondary level only based on his or her state of academic preparation. Last two Streams have been designed to provide “Safety Net” to all such unsuccessful learners of the Formal School System, who would like to save their precious time and carry on further with higher studies or enter the job market through Vocational Stream of NIOS, if they want. Based upon the design of Online Admissions, it is expected that annual enrolment of NIOS will increase by more than a lakh. Under Ni-On Project, learners of NIOS will be able to access Study Material Online. There will be a direct linkage in between NIOS and its learners for the first time, thereby removing a large number of “Student Support Services” related problems. It will improve academic intervention and delivery mechanism of NIOS substantially for the learners, thereby improving the quality of teaching-learning process of NIOS and overcome the digital divide that NIOS learners are facing so far. By harnessing ICT, NIOS will establish a direct linkage with the learners and provide them a bouquet of choices for entering and leaving the Open Learning System according to their requirements, thereby improving educational access at school level, at minimal cost. HB/SB/SL