Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya

Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) is a system of central schools for talented students predominantly from rural areas in India, targeting gifted students who lack access to accelerated learning due to financial, social and rural disadvantages.

 They are run by Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Noida, an autonomous organization under the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education .JNVs are fully residential and co-educational schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), with classes from VI to XII standard.

 

Budget for all the activities at JNVs are provided by the Ministry of Education, and it's free of cost for students during the first 3 years of stay, from class IX onwards a nominal fee of ₹600 per month is applicable for general and OBC caste students.

JNVs exist all over India, with the exception of Tamil Nadu. As of 31 December 2022, 661 JNVs were running with about 2,87,568 students enrolled, out of which 2,51,430 (≈87%) were from rural areas. In 2022, JNVs were the top-ranked C.B.S.E. schools, having a pass percentage of 99.71% and 98.93% in 10th and 12th grades respectively.

History of JNV

The idea of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas conceived by former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. The concept of opening a JNV in every district of India was born as a part of the National Policy on Education, 1986 with an aim of providing excellence coupled with social justice. Subsequently, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) was registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

As per policy of the government, one JNV was to be established in each district of country. To start with, two Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas were established during 1985–86, at Jhajjar (Haryana) and Amravati (Maharashtra). As of the 2022-23 academic session, JNVs had been sanctioned for 638 districts. In addition, ten JNVs have been sanctioned in districts having a large population of ST population, ten in districts having a large concentration of SC population and 3 special JNVs in Manipur and Ratlam, bringing the total number of sanctioned JNVs to 661. Out of these 649 JNVs are functional.

Organisational structure

Navodaya Vidyalayas are run by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS), an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Education (MoE)(formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (1985–2020) ), Department of School Education and Literacy, Govt. of India. The Chairman of the Samiti is the Minister of Education.

The Samiti functions through the executive committee under the Chairmanship of the Minister of Education. The executive committee is responsible for the management of all affairs including allocation of funds to the Samiti and has the authority to exercise all powers of Samiti. It is assisted by two sub-committees, the Finance Committee and Academic Advisory Committee. The executive head of the administrative pyramid is the Commissioner who executes the policies laid down by the Samiti's executive committee. He/she is assisted at the Headquarters level by Joint Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners. 

The Samiti has established eight regional offices for the administration and monitoring of Navodaya Vidyalayas under their jurisdiction. These offices are headed by a deputy commissioner and assistant commissioners.

For each JNV, there is a Vidyalaya Advisory Committee for assistance on matters of academics, infrastructure and other general activities and a Vidyalaya Management Committee for budget preparation, selection of ad-hoc teachers and proper functioning of the school.Normally the district collector of the concerned district is the ex-officiol chairman of school level committees with local educationists, public representatives and officers from the district as members. Some schools also have a Vidhyalaya Coordination Committee for looking after the performance of academics.