The Union Government has decided to affiliate 100 government schools, private schools, and NGOs with Sainik Schools Society, Ministry of Defence from 2022-23 academic year. Affiliated Sainik schools will be set up in partnership with NGOs, private schools and state governments. These schools will be different from exciting Sainik schools and will focus on providing cost-effective ways to the larger populations across the country. This initiative has been taken under the vision of the National Education Policy (NEP) which aims at providing value-based education.
The affiliated Sainik schools will start functioning from the next academic year 2022-23 and approximately 5,000 students are expected to receive admission in Class 6. Presently, there are 33 Sainik schools which have an admission capacity of approximately 3,000 students in Class 6th.
According to a statement by the government, 100 new Sainik schools are being introduced for the following benefits:
- Provide cost-effective ways in reaching out to larger populations across all regions in the country.
- Meeting growing demand for Sainik Schools and providing effective physical, psycho-social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional and cognitive development.
- Savings in training duration, deployment of trainers, maintenance and operations budgets, while substantially improving the quality of youth entering the various walks of life.
Government schools, private schools, and NGOs who want to get affiliated with Sainik School Society can submit their proposals online at- sainikschool.ncog.gov. The website also has the salient features and qualifying criteria required under this scheme along with the responsibilities of stakeholders, that is Ministry of Defence and school management.
Stating the objective of setting up 100 Sainik schools, the Sainik schools society writes on its official website: ”To set up schools on the pattern of existing Sainik Schools in order to develop the ethos of national spirit, indomitable courage, unfailing commitment to values of respect for country and society, imbibe the importance of physical fitness and embody the national pride in students’ souls while providing “CBSE Plus” type of educational environment by involving the Government/ private schools to partner in establishing/ aligning their system in line with Sainik Schools’ eco-system.”
