In its bid to fulfil the goal of universalising secondary education by increasing enrolment, the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) has launched an online admission system, which will be available with immediate effect. 
The NI-ON, launched here on Wednesday by Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, is likely to increase the annual enrolment by more than a lakh, NIOS Chairman M C Pant said. It would also help unsuccessful candidates in other boards to avail of its system, thus saving one year for them, he added.
“At present there are 3.5 lakh out-of-school children in the country and according to the target fixed by the 11th Plan about 15 per cent of these children should be absorbed by the open schooling system,” he said.  
As part of the project, NIOS has tailor-made three streams of online admissions for meeting the requirements of different groups of its potential learners.  Under Stream-1 the learners can access NIOS directly online through its website (www.nos.org) for seeking admissions. 
The choice of study centres will lie with the learners.  Stream-2 has been designed to save one year of all those who have been unsuccessful in CBSE/ICSE/Other recognised state education boards.