Dr. Sitansu S. Jena, Chairman
Dr. Sitansu S. Jena is the Chairman, National Institute of Open
Schooling (NIOS), the largest Open School in the world, and
functions as an autonomous institution under the auspices of
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India. Dr.
Jena is also the Ex-officio Chairperson of the National Consortium
for Open Schooling (NCOS), India a body to promote open schooling
movement in India. He is also the founding Chairperson of the
Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA) formed under the
aegis of Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver, Canada for
promoting open schooling system in the Commonwealth Countries.
Dr. Jena has earned significant expertise with more than two
decades of involvement in the field of Open Distance Learning in
the areas of curriculum development, continuing professional
development, student support services, use of ICT, administrative
and leadership qualities, including financing and accounting
system.
Prior to the current assignment, Dr. Jena was a member of the
faculty of IGNOU and Regional Director of Indira Gandhi National
Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. He also worked as Director,
Distance Education Programme of Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan (Education
for ALL Programme of Govt. of India), a national level project
devoted for capacity building of teachers and other personnel
engaged with the Elementary Education sector. He also worked as
Dean, School of Distance learning of the Narsee Munji Institute of
Management Studies, Mumbai, a premier private sector Institution in
the management education. Presently he is closely associated with
the skill training programmes of Govt. of India and more
specifically in the context of policy formulation activities of the
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and Planning
Commission of Govt. of India in the elementary, secondary and
vocational education sectors.