The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), is a national level board of education in India, controlled and managed by the Government of India. It was established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India in 1989. The NIOS board introduced the Open Basic Education program as an alternative educational program, equivalent to the Elementary Education Program of the formal education system. In this program, a student can take lesser subjects to suit their capacity and take longer time to finish any particular academic year.

SOPAN manages a NIOS unit. This unit facilitates children from the institute to register with Pratham which is the NGO which manages the exams for students registered under the NIOS system in Mumbai. SOPAN students can continue with their studies at a slower pace than their mainstream peers and are able to continue right up to Class 12.