Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India. It is responsible for establishing and managing the network of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs), a system of co-educational residential schools intended primarily for talented children from rural areas of India.
| Name | Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | NVS |
| Type | Autonomous body |
| Parent ministry | Ministry of Education, Government of India |
| Schools managed | Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) |
| School type | Co-educational, residential |
| Affiliation of schools | Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) |
| Medium of instruction | Mother tongue/regional language up to a stage, with Hindi and English thereafter |
The Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya scheme was conceived as part of the National Policy on Education, 1986, which envisaged the setting up of pace-setting residential schools to provide quality modern education to children predominantly from rural areas, irrespective of their family's socio-economic condition. To implement and administer this scheme, the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti was constituted as a registered society under the Government of India.
The Samiti functions under the overall administrative control of the Ministry of Education (formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development). The schools it operates are generally established at the rate of one per district, subject to the availability of land and other requirements.
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are fully residential, co-educational schools providing education from Class VI to Class XII. They are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Education in JNVs, including boarding, lodging, textbooks and uniforms, is provided largely free of cost, with limited contributions from certain categories of parents as prescribed by the Samiti.
Admission to Class VI in JNVs is made through the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Selection Test (JNVST), a competitive entrance examination conducted by the Samiti. Reservation is provided for students from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other categories as per government norms, with a defined share for rural candidates and for girls.
A distinctive feature of the Navodaya system is its migration scheme, under which a portion of students from a JNV in one linguistic region spend an academic year in a JNV located in a different linguistic region. The scheme is intended to promote understanding of India's cultural and linguistic diversity.
The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti is governed by a society and an executive committee, with the Union Minister of Education serving as the chairperson of the society. Day-to-day administration is carried out by the Commissioner of the Samiti, supported by directorate staff at the headquarters and by regional offices that supervise clusters of JNVs across the country.
The Navodaya Vidyalaya system is one of the largest networks of residential schools run by a central government agency in India. It is considered significant for extending access to quality residential schooling to rural children, for its role in implementing the three-language formula, and for promoting national integration through the inter-regional migration of students.