To provide secondary and senior secondary education to those belonging to disadvantaged groups (e.g. The scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, socially and educationally disadvantaged classes and other socially, culturally, economically, geographically weaker sections of the society, or such other factors as may be specified/ notified by the appropriate government) and people belonging to weaker sections who are not able to get secondary and senior secondary education in the normal course of life.

To provide professional services to the government and other agencies in the field of education, in general, and school education, in particular for the development and growth of distance and open school system and develop appropriate curriculum for vocational and continuing education to prepare student population for the world of work.

To provide the best possible teaching/ learning environment to its students, so that they can serve the society effectively and with dignity individualized study with flexibility in terms of place and duration.

To open schools/ academic centres, study centres, competitive training institutes and language institutes.

To identify educational needs of the children/persons of the state who are otherwise not catered to by the formal system of school education and to open study/academic centres.

To provide opportunities for school education up to pre-degree level through open and distance learning (ODL) mode, to identify and promote standards of learning in open and distance learning system.

To design and develop courses, self-instructional materials (sim) and other learning support for the courses identified at different points of time, to organize orientation and training programmes for the functionaries of the open schooling system in the country, to evolve strategies for curriculum development, instructional procedures etc.

To undertake and coordinate educational research and programmes on the suggestion of the state government(s) concerned etc.

To establish contacts with international agencies in the field of education, especially school education, for keeping itself acquainted with the latest trends in curriculum development, material production, media use for dissemination etc, to establish links with other examining bodies with special focus on Asian countries.

To collaborate with other agencies within and outside the state for developing and delivering skill-oriented courses of study, to promote and publicize open schooling programmes and activities in the country.

To maintain standards and equivalence with formal education system, while ensuring flexible characteristics of open and distance learning system, to assist and advise the state government in matters related to open schooling.

To serve as an agency for effective dissemination of information related to open learning and distance education and to discharge coordination and clearing house functions

To provide opportunities for continuing education to those who have missed opportunities to complete school and development education, and other children/persons desirous of pursuing school level education through JSOS mode by offering courses and programmes of general education, life enrichment and vocational education up to pre-degree level.

To take the responsibilities of researching, innovating and experimenting in the area of open schooling and open learning and disseminating tested innovative practices to states.

To play a nodal and lead role in developing a network of open schooling in the country and help the states in adapting/adopting the course material as well as developing courses in regional languages.

To share with the SOS and other open schooling agencies in the areas of common curriculum, printed instructional materials, and media materials etc.

To develop and prescribe or offer vocational courses to the students of the open channel.

To collaborate with agencies and institutions who would be willing to provide learning assistance to the students and to accredit such learning support centres or study centres including study centres abroad.