PUNE: State education minister Vinod Tawde claimed that the National Institute of Open Schooling certificates were not considered equivalent to those of other educational boards and went on to add that people felt these certificates were ‘below grade’.Tawde made the statement during the launch of Maharashtra State Board of Open Schooling (MSBOS) here on Thursday.Countering Tawde, regional director of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), Pune, Saumya Rajan termed the statement an act of mudslinging. Rajan claimed that there was no comparison between a central and a state board.Speaking about the need for an open board, Tawde said it would help students, who had dropped out of formal education for various reasons, such as no school available near their home or a desire to pursue sports.“I’m often asked, why form MSBOS if there is a National Institute of Open Schooling. We have done many different things in MSBOS. We have skill development courses, we have vertical movement here. Language and other subjects have a lot of choices. NIOS is not considered equivalent to other education boards, due to which if a student completes Class X from NIOS, people feel s/he is a bit below grade. The certificate of an MSBOS student, who passes out of Class X, will be considered equivalent to the CBSE or SSC board. This is a major thing,” Tawde said.Rajan countered saying NIOS was a central board and provided skill development courses, choices in subjects and it was equivalent to any other education board.“There are only two central boards that offer secondary and senior secondary certification to students — Central Board of Secondary Education and NIOS. There is absolutely no question of lower grade, or non-equivalency, or non-recognition. The website of the ministry of human resource development mentions that it was set up in 1989 and since then it has been imparting education to all through its study centres. This is just negative campaigning against NIOS by the Maharashtra Open School. There is absolutely no comparison between a state and a national board,” said Rajan.He further said, “Another important point is that it was NIOS that technically and financially supported Maharashtra to set up an open school board. It shared its curriculum, brochure, prospectus and profile in 2007 during its pre-launch stage.”

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