Sainik schools now open for girls also; All you need to know about Sainik schools

New Delhi, Aug 16: In a huge development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that Sainik Schools across the country will be open for admission to girl students. "The government has decided that doors of every Sainik School will now be open for girl children," said the Prime Minister while addressing the nation on 75th Independence Day from Red Fort in New Delhi.

 

PM Modi informed that he had been receiving requests from girls across the country expressing their aspiration to study in Sainik Schools. "I used to get messages from lakhs of daughters that they too want to study in Sainik Schools, the doors of Sainik Schools should be opened for them too. About 2-2.5 years ago, the experiment of admitting girls was done for the first time in Sainik School in Mizoram," he said.

 

 

Meanwhile, talking about the National Education Policy, he said that it will become a major force in the fight against poverty. "Today the country has a new 'National Education Policy' to meet the needs of the 21st century. The National Education Policy 2020 will become a major force in the fight against poverty," said the Prime Minister.

 

PM Modi further noted that when daughters and sons of poor families will become professionals after studying in their mother tongue, then justice will be done to their ability. Laying emphasis on the "special feature" of policy, he said, "There is another special feature of the new National Education Policy. In this, sports have been made a part of mainstream education instead of extracurricular. Sports are also one of the most effective means of moving forward in life."

 

 

 

1. These schools were introduced by VK Krishna Menon, the Union defence minister from April 1957 to October 1962. Menon conceived this idea in 1961.

 

2. An All India Sainik School Entrance Examination (AISSEE) is conducted for admission to Sainik Schools, which follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum.

 

3. However, it is to be noted that 67% seats are reserved for students who are from the home state of a Sainik School. The remaining 33% students are admitted from outside the home state. As usual, there is reservation also on the basis of Scheduled Castes (15%), Scheduled Tribes (7.5%), Other Backward Classes (27%) and for wards of current and former servicemen (25%).

 

4. Presently, there are 33 such schools in the country. Uttar Pradesh has three Sainik Schools, while Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan have two schools each.

 

5. These schools are run by the Sainik Schools Society under the Union ministry of defence (MoD). As the name suggests, Sainik Schools prepare students for a career in the armed forces. Hence students here are called “cadets” and have to follow strict rules, which are on the lines of those in military academies.

 

6. As a pilot project, Sainik School in Mizoram’s Chhingchhip began admitting girls from October 2019. PM Modi mentioned the school while making the announcement.