We Secured Class X NIOS Telugu Medium Question Papers - A 1516 Success Story

A woman from a village near Chirala, AP wanted to complete her Class 10. The Telugu Medium question papers she needed did not exist on the National Institute of Open Schooling website. This is the story of how we fixed that.

If you only want to download the Question Papers, please scroll down to the bottom.

It Started With a Phone Call

In late 2025, a woman from a village near Chirala in Andhra Pradesh reached out to 1516. She was in her forties. She had dropped out of school decades ago — life had gotten in the way, as it does for millions of women in rural India. She wanted to complete her Class 10.

She had never heard of open schooling. She did not know that systems existed — run by both the Central and State governments — that allow anyone, at any age, to complete their 10th standard without setting foot in a regular school. She thought the only way was to go to the local govt school, which, obviously was not suitable as it was with children.

When 1516 got involved, we explored the options available to her. There were two main paths:

• APOSS — the Andhra Pradesh Open School Society, which is the state-level open school. APOSS has one intake per year, with admissions in June–July and exams conducted once a year in March.
• NIOS — the National Institute of Open Schooling, which is a Central Government institution. NIOS has two intakes per year: Block 1 (admissions around September–January, exams in April/May) and Block 2 (admissions around February–July, exams in October/November).

Since NIOS offered more flexibility with two exam windows, and since its certificate is recognised nationally and internationally, we helped her understand the NIOS route. She could study and write her exams entirely in Telugu medium.

But when we went looking for previous year question papers to help her prepare, we found a problem.

The NIOS website had a dedicated section for previous year question papers. But the only papers available — for every subject, for every year — were in English medium. That was it. No Telugu. No other medium. Just English.

NIOS conducts examinations in multiple regional languages including Telugu. But the question papers on their website existed in only one medium — English. A student preparing to write her exam in Telugu had no way to see what the Telugu paper actually looked like.

Those students had no question papers to practice with.

What Is NIOS and Why Does It Matter?

The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is a Central Government institution under the Ministry of Education. It is the largest open schooling system in the world. NIOS offers Secondary (Class 10) and Senior Secondary (Class 12) education to anyone who could not complete regular schooling.

There is no upper age limit. A 16-year-old who dropped out can enrol. A 45-year-old who never got the chance can enrol. A working mother, a daily wage labourer, a farmer — anyone.

NIOS conducts admissions twice every year:

• Block 1 — Admissions open around March–July (with late fee till Sep), exams held in April/May
• Block 2 — Admissions open around Oct–Jan(with late fee till March), exams held in October/November

For the Secondary (Class 10) course, students need to be at least 14 years old and must have completed Class 8 or equivalent. They can choose from 11 subjects, and crucially, they can study and write their exams in Telugu medium.

The subjects offered in Telugu medium at the Secondary level are:

These are real, board-level examinations. An NIOS Class 10 certificate is equivalent to any State Board SSC certificate. It is accepted for government jobs, for further studies, for everything.

NIOS Is Not the Only Option — But Telugu Students Deserve Better From All of Them

In Andhra Pradesh, there is APOSS — the Andhra Pradesh Open School Society. In Telangana, there is TOSS — the Telangana Open School Society. Both offer SSC and Intermediate courses through open schooling.

But NIOS has a distinct advantage. It is a national board. Its certificate is recognised across India, not just within one state. For students who may later move to another state for work or higher education, an NIOS certificate travels with them without needing equivalency certificates or attestations.

Between APOSS, TOSS, and NIOS, any person in the two Telugu states can complete their 10th standard at any age, in Telugu, without attending a regular school. This is a fundamental right that exists on paper.

But rights on paper mean nothing if the infrastructure does not support them. And the most basic piece of exam infrastructure — previous year question papers — was missing for Telugu medium students on the NIOS website.

Why Previous Year Question Papers Matter

For regular school students, question papers are everywhere. Teachers share them. Coaching centres distribute them. They circulate through WhatsApp groups.

For open school students — especially those in villages — the official website is often the only source. These are people who do not have access to coaching centres. They do not have teachers guiding them. They are studying on their own, often after work, often late at night.

Previous year question papers are not supplementary material for them. They are essential preparation material. Without them, a student is going into an exam blind. They do not know the pattern. They do not know the weightage of topics. They do not know the format of questions.

When that woman from Chirala told us the papers were not available, we checked.

She was right. The NIOS website had a dedicated page for previous year question papers. Telugu medium was simply absent from it.

The RTI Filing

On 30 January 2026, I filed a Right to Information (RTI) application with NIOS under the RTI Act, 2005 asking for the Question papers for the past 5 years of Telugu medium for NIOS Class X.

My RTI was received on 30 January 2026. The 30-day deadline was 1 March 2026.

NIOS responded on 8 April 2026.

That is 68 days after receipt. 38 days beyond the statutory deadline. More than double the time permitted by law.

The Response — And the Unexpected Outcome

When the response finally came, it was delightful to see.

"Telugu medium subject question paper of the following subjects at Secondary level is uploaded and available at NIOS website i.e. https://nios.ac.in/student-information-section/question-paper-of-previous-year-examination-academic.aspx"

The response listed all 11 subjects and confirmed that Telugu medium papers are indeed administered.

But here is the part that matters more than the response itself:

NIOS uploaded the Telugu medium question papers to their website.

Not just for one year. They uploaded question papers from 2021 onwards — covering 10 exam sessions (April and October of each year from 2021 to 2025), across all 11 subjects. That is 110 question papers that are now publicly accessible.

These papers were not available before the RTI was filed. That is why the RTI needed to be filed. They are available now. Lakhs of Telugu medium students preparing for NIOS Class 10 exams now have access to real Question papers for the first time.

This is a boon for Telugu students.

What We Did With the Papers

After confirming that the papers were uploaded, we downloaded all 110 PDFs. The files were inconsistently named — some had cryptic codes like 63-211-T.pdf, others had partial subject names with typos like 213_T_Social Science_Telegu (S).pdf.

We reorganised and renamed every file into a clean, consistent format:

Subject Name (Code) - Month Year - Telugu Medium.pdf

For example:

• Mathematics (211) - April 2022 - Telugu Medium.pdf
• Science and Technology (212) - October 2023 - Telugu Medium.pdf
• Data Entry Operations (229) - April 2025 - Telugu Medium.pdf

The entire set is now cleanly organised and ready for distribution. Downlaod link is below.

Note: One file — Data Entry Operations (229) from April 2023 — was found to be password-protected on the NIOS website. We have written to the CPIO requesting that this be fixed. All other 109 papers have been successfully processed.

Why Completing Class 10 Changes Lives in the Telugu States

In both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, a Class 10 (SSC) certificate is the minimum qualification for a wide range of government jobs at the village and mandal level. These are not theoretical positions. These are the jobs that sustain families in rural India.

With an SSC certificate, a person becomes eligible for:

• Grama Sachivalayam support roles — office subordinates, assistants, and helpers at the village secretariat level
• Anganwadi Workers and Helpers — crucial community health and nutrition roles in every village
• Police Department — constable-level recruitment in both AP and Telangana police
• Revenue Department — certain Group-IV posts including Village Revenue Assistants
• Defence — Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force soldier/sailor/airman positions through central recruitment
• Postal Department — Gramin Dak Sevaks (village postmen) and other postal positions
• Railways — Group D positions across South Central Railway and other zones

For a woman in a village near Chirala, this is the difference between dependence and independence. Between having a government ID that says "10th pass" and not having one.

An SSC certificate from NIOS, APOSS, or TOSS is equally valid for all of these. The exam can be written in Telugu. The study material is in Telugu. And now, the practice question papers are also available in Telugu.

How You Can Help

If you know someone — a family member, a neighbour, a domestic worker, a colleague — who did not complete their 10th standard, tell them about these options:

1. NIOS — National board, recognised across India. Admissions twice a year. Exams in Telugu. nios.ac.in
2. APOSS — Andhra Pradesh Open School Society. State board for AP residents. apopenschool.ap.gov.in
3. TOSS — Telangana Open School Society. State board for Telangana residents. telanganaopenschool.org

There is no age limit. There is no embarrassment in completing your education at 30, 40, or 50. The system exists specifically for this purpose.

And now, for NIOS students choosing Telugu medium — the question papers are finally there.

Download All NIOS Class X Telugu Medium Question Papers

We have compiled, cleaned up, and organised all 110 NIOS Telugu medium question papers (2021–2025) into a single folder. Every file is properly named and ready to use.

📥 Download NIOS Class X Question Papers

One RTI changed everything

A national educational institution was offering Telugu medium examinations but had not bothered to upload the question papers in Telugu on their own website. Not for one year. Not for five years.

However, it only took one RTI filing to get this done. If you don't ask of your government, you don't get from your government.

If you want something from the government, you must ask for it. You must let the government know that you want it and then the machinery will kick into gear and get the ball rolling.

1516 exists to create awareness and solve real problems for Telugu students across AP and TG. If you are facing any issue, you can reach us through Ask A Question feature.

Prithvi Raj Kunapareddi is the Founder of 1516.