NEW DELHI: On the eve of Teachers Day, the Centre gave a boost to school education by announcing the opening of 20 more Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs). The new schools will be set up in districts having larger SC/ST population.
The decision came on a day when prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed deep concern over the dropout rate in schools.
"I must admit the dropout rate in our school system continues to be a cause of serious concern. We have to make determined efforts to reduce it significantly," the PM said while addressing national award-winning teachers here.
The HRD ministry also plans to open 4,000 model schools on JNV and Kendriya Vidyalaya lines.
Navodaya Vidyalayas is a central sector scheme launched in 1986 to provide quality education to talented rural children. The scheme, which began with two schools, has now grown to 554 schools in 34 states and union territories. JNVs are all-expenses-paid residential schools from class VI to XII.
The performance of JNV students has shown a steady progress in the last five years. A total of 28,987 students from 444 JNVs took the 2006-07 class X exam, while 18,682 students from 369 JNVs appeared for the class XII exam. In class X, JNVs stood first among the different schools affiliated to CBSE, while in class XII it was second. JNV class X students scored 91% between 2004-06,96.4% in 2007 and 97.54% in 2008 even as the average percentage for private schools ranged from 84.8 to 91.77,while that of CBSE schools ranged between 76.6 and 87 in this period. From class XII, JNV students scored an average of 87.7% in 2004 as compared to 80.5% and 80.4% by private and other CBSE school students. This year, the JNV percentage was 92.44 compared with 81.7 and 80.9 for private and CBSE schools.
