Navodaya Vidayalayas – An Honest attempt to ensure Social Justice

(This is a translation of the original Tamil version of the article. Translation by @Aatreyaa)

What is Navodaya Vidyalaya?

As per the Education Policy of 1986, to help socially backward, oppressed, economically backward students and children from rural areas get quality education and to ensure social justice is delivered to all section of society, Navodhya Vidhayalas were started in the year 1985-86

Who administers these Navodaya Vidyalayas?

Navodaya Vidyalayas all over the country are administered by an autonomous organization called Navodaya Vidyalaya Samithi which comes under the direct supervision of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) handles all the matters like formulation of syllabus, setting standards, providing recognition etc.

Where do these Navodaya Vidyalayas be established?

The basic goal of this policy is that each and every district of each state in the whole nation will have a Navodaya Vidyalaya. There is an exception to this. That is if a district has a large population of people from SC/ST community then additional Navodaya Vidyalayas will be established in addition to the existing ones.

How many Navodaya Vidyalayas are there in our country?

According to the statistics available, as of November 2016 there are 598 Navodaya Vidyalayas have been given permission to operate. Of these 591 are fully functional catering to students from lower middle class and rural areas. Apart from these permission has been given to establish  62 more schools (Tamilnadu not included) A special mention has to be made out here that 10 schools are specially established for students from tribal community and 10 schools specially  for students from oppressed communities.

What are the facilities provided by Navodaya Vidyalayas?

Each school should be established in a land area of at least 30 acres.

Each school should have international level educational standards with international standards along with lab facilities, library, computer lab, auditorium, etc. In addition, the school should compulsorily have play ground and facilities for games like Volleyball, Football, Handball, Basketball, Kho Kho, Cricket, etc.

Likewise, these schools should have separate hostels for boys and girls. Staffs and Administrators should be housed in the campus itself. About half the Navodaya Vidyalayas in the nation, that is about 373 schools (from the data we have for 2016) have already been upgraded to have Smart Class facilities.

Science conferences and exhibitions will be conducted on a regular basis to improve the potential and talents of the students.

How is the admission process carried out? Is Social Justice being compromised?

Navodaya Vidyalayas provide education from classes 6 to 12. Each year students are admissions for Class 6 take place through entrance exam based on the respective state syllabus. For differently-abled  children Smart tests are conducted.
Navodaya Vidyalayas are leading examples for delivering social justice in the nation.

Each year 80 students are admitted to each class. Out of these 80, 75% are reserved for students from rural background, 25% (at max.) for urban students. In this, 33% seats are reserved for girl students, 3% for differently-abled children and there are seats reserved for SC, ST students. There are no seats reserved for OBC students. Now tell me, Is Social Justice being delivered or denied?

What about the fee structure for Navodaya Vidyalayas? Will they be exorbitant?

You may not believe this but truth has to be told at any cost. Navodaya Vidyalayas provide quality education at a very low cost, lower than the best of the best private schools.

• Class 6 – No Fee
• Class 7 – No Fee
• Class 8 – No Fee
• Class 9 to Class 12 – Girls, SC &ST Students (both boys and girls), Students BPL (Below Povery Line) families do not have to pay any fees.

Those who do not fall in these categories have to pay a monthly fee of only Rs. 200 i.e. Rs. 2000 per year.

Everything what you have mentioned is fine, will Hindi be made compulsory?

This is a well orchestrated plan to spread false news. The reason I am saying it is a lie because the “Language Policy of Navodaya Vidyalayas” is to give prime importance to the respective state’s language. I will explain it a bit.

Navodaya Vidyalayas have a 3 language policy

• Part 1 – Applicable to the states where Hindi is primarily spoken language
  • First Language – Hindi
  • Second Language – English
  • Additional Language – Regional Language (If applicable)
• Part 2 – Applicable to states where people speak their respective regional language and not Hindi
  • First Language – Regional Language (Tamil in case of TN)
  • Second Language – English
  • Additional Language – Hindi (If interested)
• Part 3 – Applicable especially to the states in the North East
  • First Language – English
  • Second Language – Hindi
  • Additional Language – Regional Language (If applicable)

Achievements of Navodaya Vidyalayas

Since these schools are only interested in providing good quality education they have been producing very good results. For e.g.  In the year 2015-16, the pass percentage delivered by Navodaya Vidyalayas in Class 10 was 98.87% and in Class 12 it was 96.73%  In 2016-17, the pass percentage in Class 10 was 99.30% and in Class 12 it was 95.73%

Wonderful!!! How many of these Navodaya Vidyalayas are there in TN?

The unpleasant truth is, there is none.
Both DMK and DK did not allow Navodaya Vidyalayas in TN for their selfish political reasons.

If you point them to the states like Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala (which they so affectionately call dravidian states ) and ask them why these states have allowed Navodaya Vidyalayas? There is no answer from these parties.

But at the same time, leaders in DMK and the party MPs and MLAs run CBSE schools, well even Karunanidhi’s family runs a CBSE school by the name Sun Shine where children from wealthy families are admitted and educated.

Death Blow delivered by the Court:   In the judgment delivered yesterday (11-09-2017) by the Madurai bench of the High Court in a PIL , the court has ordered the TN State Govt. to start Navodaya Vidyalayas from the coming school year.
In addition, the court has delivered this judgement only after receiving a signed affidavit from CBSE that it will implement the already existing law in TN, which mandates learning Tamil will be compulsory until Class 10 and for Classes 11 and 12 it will be made optional.

Fine, everything seems good so far, then why do parties like DMK and organizations like DK still oppose establishing Navodaya Vidyalayas in TN?  I would be surprised only if this Question did not occur to you. We will see about this in detail and the politics behind it in the next post.