Uttarakhand Council Of Open Schooling (UKCOS), as an autonomous Organisation of Education Department, Govt. of Uttrakhand in Feb., 1990 is yet another significant mile stone, on the road of rapid socio-economic development of the State in last few years.UKCOS, is a registered Govt. Society under Societies Act. It is an Open & Distance Learning Institution, set up on the lines of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), under Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. It's mandate is to "Reaching the Unreached" in terms of Education & Skills, in Uttrakhand, through Open & Distance learning mode. It provides special focus on marginalised Socio-economic and Religious sections for the purpose of their integration with the main stream through relevant educational and skill development interventions. As an Apex Organisation, in the field of school education, it develops it's own content and books, imparts education, corresponding to all levels of formal school system, i.e. from Class I to Class XII. It also hold Public Examination, followed by grants of Certificates for Class X and Class XII, having equivalence with the Certificates of other Formal School Examination Boards like C.B.S.E./I.C.S.E. and other Secondary Boards of the Country.Therefore in effect, it is an amalgamation of State Council of Educational Research and Training and Uttrakhand School Examination Board, in the field of Open & Distance Learning, at school level. It has also been declared as a Nodal Agency for skill development and vocational traning through ODL mode for Uttrakhand Skill Development Mission (BSDM). UKCOS has several unique & distinguishing features, which sets it apart from all other formal Examination Boards.

It impart vocational and skills training in addition, to it's academic courses, right from the levels corresponding to Class 5+ up to classes below degree levels of Universities.It allows combination of Vocational Courses along with Academic subjects at Class X/XII level and also imparts training in stand alone vocational subjects depending upon the level of Courses & competencies, involved. UKCOS grants Diplomas & Certificates for various educational & vocational courses, for various duration & competency levels.

Special projects... The board has acquired wide ranging expertises in identifying, designing and developing special projects for providing educational and skill development intervention to a particular target gruop defined in terms of religion, caste, geographical locations, and other socio-economic parameters. It also provides, various life enrichment courses, in different categories.Other Innovative features of Uttrakhand State Open School (UKCOS).

Uttrakhand State Open School (UKCOS) is fast emerging as a powerful instrument of policy Intervention for the State Govt, for not only, in helping in Universalisation School Education, but also for ensuring access, equity & quality in it , along with mainstreaming of marginalised communities and there by "Reaching the Unreached" . It has immense potential and role, to help the State in reaping the "Demographic Dividend" effectively by transforming unskilled & Semi-skilled work force of Uttrakhand into skilled and valuable human resource, through distance learning mode. UKCOS holds tremendous possibilities for providing relevent event and new market driven skill sets to youth of Uttrakhand and also to up scale their existing skill base. UKCOS has already emerged as a nodal Agency for the State in this regard and is in the process of forging new collaborations & partnerships with leading players in different sectors of trade & industry. UKCOS is uniquely poised to service, from its vast and varied bouquet of courses of study, subjects, training packages and Instructional materials to satisfy the needs of it's diverse client groups.

Mission

The mission of Uttarakhand Council Of Open Schooling (UKCOS) shall be to provide modern open and flexible, life related educational opportunities to those who cannot attend a regular school with a special focus on marginalised socio-religious groups. The mission is to increase access with equity in education, ensure social justice and to universalise high quality education.

Our Objectives

• To contribute to the national goal of universalisation of education through a high quality system of open schooling
• To reach out of disadvantaged and marginalized groups such as girls, women, scheduled castes, schedules tribes, minorities, differently abled, ex servicemen, rural persons, backward sections, dalits, nomadic persons and others who need a flexible system of education
• To design and develop courses at primary, upper primary, secondary and senior secondary level that would be offered through open schooling.
• To plan, design and develop curricular and courses in vocational areas in self learning format in keeping with the ideas of work-cantered education
• To plan, design and develop curricular and courses in vocational areas in self learning format in keeping with the ideas of work-cantered education
• To utilize distance education modalities for optimum benefit for those enrolled through open schooling including designing and develop self learning materials in print, audio and video format.
• To develop, support systems using e-governance models for ensuring quality education including maintenance of data base on Open Learning
• To undertake research, action research in particular for diagnostic problem solving and developmental thrust in building Uttarakhand Council Of Open Schooling
• To create a synergy between conventional schooling/ university and ODL systems so that quality of education remains equivalent and Open School becomes a feeder to the University system.
• To collaborate with associated educational and vocational institutions at the state levels for example SIERT, SIFT, SCERT, Board of Secondary Education, Colleges of Education, Polytechnics, Shramik Vidyapeeths, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, etc., for developing and delivering relevant academic and skill oriented courses.
• To collaborate with national and international agencies like National Institute of Open Schooling, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Commonwealth of Learning, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and others for continuing efforts in improvement of quality and standards of distance education processes and materials.