Microsoft, Ed4All tie up with NIOS to make open schoolers employable

Microsoft and Ed4All — the education SaaS platform powered by a partnership with Microsoft — have tied up with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to transform learning and empower students with digital skills. The partnership will benefit over 170 million learners across the open schooling ecosystem, providing them access to tools, experiences and skills required to be job-ready in a digital economy.

This collaboration has launched a customised tech platform for the NIOS Virtual Open School, called BLEAP for NIOS, that offers a personalised learning experience for improved learning outcomes. It offers live classes, labs, recorded sessions, remote proctored exams and assessments as well as skill-based courses and certifications to ensure a holistic learning experience. Students across NIOS will also have access to digital courses on technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cyber security and data sciences.

Navtez Bal, executive director, public sector, Microsoft India, calls this partnership, “an important step in ensuring equity in education and skilling. As we rapidly move towards a digital economy, the skills of the future will look very different from the skills that are needed today.” This collaboration is aimed at “providing access to the technology, skills and resources that students need to succeed in a digital world.”

Sanjay Viswanathan, chairman, Ed4All, expressed his pleasure at this collaboration with Microsoft and NIOS to power this custom-built learning platform. He explains that “BLEAP® stands for Blended Learning and Pedagogy – a Big Leap in school education” and that “Ed4All is committed to enable India’s 170 million learners with access to affordable, world-class education, and develop them to face challenges of the digital age and be skilled and job-ready.”

Through NIOS Virtual School, a new learning model, technology will be leveraged to “facilitate greater inclusion in education”. The School will provide “advanced digital learning platforms via virtual live classrooms and virtual labs.” The convenient modules include live demos, hands-on workshops and assignments. BLEAP for NIOS is built on the Microsoft stack of Teams, MS365 and Azure, with security at the core.

Dharmendra Pradhan, minister of education and skill development & entrepreneurship, Government of India, pointed out at the launch that, “Education is not a competition to acquire degrees, but a transformative tool. The Government is working to ensure that internet reaches village schools across the country.”