Curriculum Transaction in NIOS: Overcoming the Limitations of Packaged Instructions

Abstract

Low learning outcomes in 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 in 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 is proposed that the personal contact programme (PCP) is a 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 is suggested in the context of NIOS.