When I first heard about homeschooling, I wasn’t sure that it was the right choice compared to traditional schooling. However, at that time, traditional schooling was a mess. This was during the lockdown in 2020, and due to the sudden change into online schooling, I wasn’t able to keep up. I was thrust into a world full of distractions, and I couldn’t keep up with the schoolwork.
Secondly, I also personally felt that most subjects felt useless, especially Sanskrit which I was learning. Now, if I was interested in classic Indian literature, perhaps that would have been a good subject. However, I had no such interest of that kind, and the lack of motivation really showed in my results.
We did try to fix the problem and try focusing, but to no avail. That is when my father brought up the topic of homeschooling. Self-study, you could call it. At first, I was opposed to the idea as it was an alien concept to me. To think that there was an option where we could study without going to school? Crazy!
However, the less our efforts had an impact, the more the idea of homeschooling seemed appealing. The main issue? The lack of a fail-safe. We were discussing venturing into unknown territory. What if we failed? What if instead of our learning becoming better, it actually became worse? That was why we disregarded the idea. Until my father met Mr. Mahendran through his contacts. He had homeschooled his children and gave us valuable advice. But most importantly, he showed us a fail-safe.
That was NIOS, a national board education by the government. You could pass NIOS without even going to school. They give the books, we study, and then we write the exam. At its core, it was just self-study. NIOS certificates are also accepted by schools. So if homeschooling was a flop, we could just write tenth-grade through NIOS and go back to a normal school. With the problem of a fail-safe being solved, we ventured into the unknown: homeschooling.
Homeschooling & NIOS
What did we find beyond the “unknown”? A path that went from being narrow to someplace wide and free as far as the eye can see. We started merely with stock-market investing and simple subjects like Math. Slowly but surely, though, we started trying newer subjects. I have learnt over the past few years about World War History, Indian History, Guitar, Swimming, Photography & JavaScript.
So if it was going so well, why still do NIOS? No need for that fail-safe anymore, right?
After a while, my father realized that a 10th-grade certificate was, in fact, an important document if we ever planned to go abroad. It would be a hassle without it, and so I decided to do NIOS.
We found a NIOS Centre nearby and did the registration. There was a minor mistake on our part, but we were able to register for the Oct-Nov exams 2024. There was still a lot of time, one year, and so I took it easy. For the next 6 months, there was no big update. I was waiting for the books to arrive, but they just kept on getting delayed. The institute originally promised that the books would arrive in 2 months, but it took more than 6.
The Study
Studying was kind of messy at the start as I didn’t make a schedule or timetable. I just started studying an hour a day for each of the subjects. However, after asking the NIOS Institute nearby about it, they said that only 60% of the subjects appear on the exam. The rest are to be written and sent as “TMA’s” from home and counted for 20% of the grades.
Knowing this, I realized that I had been studying wrong. I started studying right by making a timetable and focusing only on the 60% of the chapters that would appear in the exams. This way, I didn’t feel overwhelmed and had more time to prepare well.
As the exam dates approached, I gradually increased my study hours. What started as an hour per day became two, then three, and so on.
My father brought up the idea of mock exams, and I thought it was a good idea. For the first few mock exams, my mother simply took and wrote questions for the subject. However, I was able to find the previous year’s questions and I practiced using them. I think these mock exams played a huge part in me passing the exams as It helped me become confident about my writing speed and knowledge of the subject.
With everything prepared, all I had to do was wait for the exam dates and revise all the subjects as much as I can.
However, the exam dates were delayed. The official release of the dates also included information about the exam center, which was important for us to plan ahead. Once the dates were confirmed, my father reached out to a friend who offered to help drop me off at the center.
Finally, the exams arrived. My first experience writing an exam was this: Firstly it was simpler than I expected and I realized I was stressing for nothing. all they asked for was some signatures and writing my name and enrollment number on the answer sheet. Thanks to the advice of my parents and some of my friends I knew how to write the exam and I successfully wrote all of them, doing my best. Then I waited for the results. Once I got them, (The results were also delayed) I passed successfully with over 70% in all subjects.
I finished and passed 10th grade all on my own, (without any external classes) all through simply self-study.
What I liked most about NIOS was that it gave me the flexibility to learn more than just academics. By the time I passed 10th grade, I had already learned swimming, guitar, and JavaScript. If I had followed the traditional path, I doubt I would have managed to do all that while struggling to pass 10th grade.
Looking back, NIOS not only provided me with an education but also taught me how to balance my time and explore my interests.