NIOS

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) formerly known as National Open School (NOS) was established in November, 1989 as an autonomous organisation in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. NIOS is providing a number of Vocational, Life Enrichment and Community oriented courses besides General and Academic Courses at Secondary and Senior Secondary level. It also offers Elementary level Courses through its Open Basic Education Programmes (OBE).Government of India through a gazette notification vested NIOS with the authority to examine and certify learners registered with it upto pre degree level courses.

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) (formerly National Open School, राष्ट्रीय मुक्त विद्यालयी शिक्षा संस्थान), is the Board of Education for Distance education, under the Union Government of India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India in 1989[1] to provide education inexpensively to remote areas. The NIOS is a national board that administers examinations for Secondary and Senior Secondary examinations of open schools similar to the CBSE and the CISCE.

It had a cumulative enrollment of about 1.5 million students from 2004–2009 at Secondary and Senior Secondary levels and enrolls about 350,000 students annually which makes it the largest open schooling system in the world.