Union Minister of State for Education, Dr. Subhas Sarkar addressed the 33rd Foundation Day Celebrations of NIOS as the Chief Guest. The function was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Education, Chairpersons of educational institutions, Heads of Departments, officers and staff of NIOS. Prof. Naval Kishore Ambasht, former Chairman, NIOS and Pro-Vice Chancellor, Central University of Haryana, Prof. Sushma Yadav graced the occasion .
Dr. Subhas Sarkar in his address appreciated the various programmes and schemes of NIOS and said that NIOS is lighting the lamp of knowledge all over the world. Talking about the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, he mentioned that today's children will be young people in the age group of 30-40 years on the completion of 100 years of independence and will be responsible for building our nation.
He said that the Ministry of Education, has entrusted NIOS with several responsibilities such as developing inclusive education resources, expanding the open and distance education system in states/UTs, translating all courses into more languages as required, creation of Indian Knowledge Tradition based courses and propagating Indian culture by translating them into major foreign languages.
He also praised the programmes of NIOS enrolling 10 crore adults under 'Basic Literacy Assessment', training of in-service teachers, Gender Green Project and training in Yoga. He said that Indian Sign Language as subject at the secondary level has been acknowledged at national and international platforms. He described the launch of e-library called 'DEEP' by NIOS as a big step forward.Prof. Saroj Sharma spoke about the journey of 33 years of NIOS and highlighted the special achievements.
She said that NIOS is one of the two National Boards of Education under the Ministry of Education, which provides school education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) for secondary, senior secondary and vocational education. She elaborated on the role of NIOS in the field of education, efforts being made by NIOS for successful implementation of New Education Policy, Virtual Open School, Digital Library (DEEP), NEPIA Project, MoU with Ministry of Defence for Agniveer Project, setting up of Mukta Kaushal Kendras and subjects offered under Indian knowledge Tradition. It was also conveyed by her that a curriculum called 'Aarambhika' is being developed by NIOS for catering the Indian Diaspora.
A documentary based on the journey of 33 years of educational endeavours of NIOS was presented on the occasion. In this documentary, 'All England Badminton winner Pullela Gopichand said that most of the players in his badminton academy are getting education from NIOS.NIOS alumni, Ms. Niranjana and Shri Vinod Kumar Chaudhary, were also felicitated on the occasion. Shri Vinod Kumar said that only due to his education in NIOS, he was able to get the credit of making Guinness Book of World Records 10 times (8 in Typing and 2 in sports).
A proud learner of NIOS, Ms Niranjana is a successful ventriloquist. Prof. N. K. Ambasht, former Chairman, NIOS said that in this age of technology, innovations must lead to develop 'standalone' courses for Indian Diaspora, to achieve the goals of the National Education Policy- 2020. Pro-Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sushma Yadav said that the role of NIOS increases in the light of New Education Policy. NIOS has such potential that the institute will be able to achieve the ambitious goals of National Education Policy-2020 in the coming years.Half-yearly magazine of NIOS 'Pragyan' was released by Dr. Subhas Sarkar on this occasion.