The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) chairperson Saroj Sharma said on Thursday that on 14 August 2021 NIOS started its first virtual school and was launched by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“I was surprised to read that Delhi Govt launched it yesterday. As far as the first in the country is concerned, we launched it on a national scale and the third session is underway and more than 25 lakh students have registered in Virtual Schools,” Sharma said.
“More than 7,000 study centers are aggregated from Ladakh to Kanyakumari, from east to west. Many study centers come under this ambit and all the students who are registered with NIOS which is by default part of the virtual school. Every student has his own dashboard. We also have a digital library named ‘Deep.’ The entire course content is available on it too. We have 75 academy courses,” the NIOS chairperson Sharma said.
Sharma talked about Delhi CM’s claims of starting India’s first virtual school and said, “I am an educationist and I don’t know in what context he has said but as far as the education ministry and NIOS are concerned it is working very well. Education is not the right of anyone, it is everyone’s right and we have started it. If the Delhi government needs any help from us because we are experienced and we have had 3 sessions, so we are ready to guide and monitor them.”
Earlier on Wednesday Delhi Chief Minister said, “Today, we are starting India’s first virtual school, Delhi Model Virtual School, affiliated with the Delhi Board of School Education. We’re inviting admission applications for Class 9 from today. Students from all over the country can apply for admission. Students can attend live classes and access recorded class sessions and study material at Delhi Model Virtual School. We will also help the students to prepare for competitive exams like JEE and NEET.”
Moreover, since the launch of Virtual Open School as of now NIOS has certified as many as 2,11,394 learners and each child has its own unique dashboard.
However, Virtual Open School not only covers all the states and Union territories of the country but also covers the globe.
