Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday approved an increase of 5,000 seats at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country. In the last four years there has been an addition of 9,000 seats in the residential schools for talented rural children.


With the Human Resource Development Ministry approving the addition of 5,000 more seats, the number of seats has increased from 46,600 to 51,000 at the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.


The admission to the additional seats will start in the 2019-20 academic session. "This is a step in the right direction. This is the biggest-ever expansion of quality education for rural students. This unprecedented expansion of JNVs, nearly free of cost residential schools, will provide more opportunity for talented children from rural areas to get quality education," Javadekar said.


Navodaya schools are the only institutions in the country where students give entrance examination for admission to Class 6.


In 2001, 5.50 lakh aspirants appeared for the entrance examination for Class 6. Over the years the number of aspirants appearing for the test has increased considerably.