Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, or JNVs, were envisaged as pace-setting schools for talented rural children in the National Policy on Education, 1986, and set up immediately after. The Finance Ministry recently cleared a proposal to hire counsellors for JNVs in rural areas in the wake of a number of suicides (The Indian Express, January 27). According to norms, at least 75% of the seats in each JNV are set aside for rural children. Hence, a JNV is never sanctioned for a district with a 100% urban population. That apart, seats are reserved for children from SC and ST communities in proportion to their population in the district where the school is located but is not to be less than the national average, which is 15% for SCs and 7.5% for STs. A Navodaya Vidyalaya starts from Class VI and goes up to XII. Admissions in Class VI are through a merit test, and less than 3% of the candidates every year make the cut. Currently, there are 635 JNVs in the country with 2.8 lakh students, all managed and run by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, which is an autonomous body under the HRD Ministry. Known for producing the best results in board examinations, these schools have consistently recorded a pass rate over 99% in Class X and over 95% in XII, which is far better than private schools and CBSE’s national average.
