Journal of Learning for Development (Jan 2015)
Curriculum Transaction in NIOS: Overcoming the Limitations of Packaged Instructions
Abstract
Low learning outcomes of Indian schools and the promotion of rote learning by their instructional systems have been documented time and again. Schools are therefore required to adopt India’s National Curriculum Framework (NCF) (2005) that includes guidelines for curriculum transaction. However, the learning outcomes and the kind of learning likely to be promoted by the instructional system of open schools of India, including the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) remain excluded from these deliberations. So these two aspects of NIOS have been examined and it has been inferred that the learning outcomes are unsatisfactory; the instructional system is not designed for meaningful learning; and the self learning material used for delivering instructions is a barrier to the adoption of the NCF guidelines. Thereafter it has been proposed that the personal contact programme (PCP) is the only component of the instructional system of NIOS that will lend itself to the adoption of the NCF guidelines, provided it is designed suitably. Subsequently a PCP design based on the NCF directives for organising instructional processes has been suggested.
