The National Policy on Education-1986 envisaged setting up of residential schools, to be called Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, that would bring out the best of rural talent.

It was felt that children with special talent or aptitude should be provided opportunities to progress at a faster pace by making good quality education available to them irrespective of their capacity to pay for it. Such education would enable students from rural areas to compete with their urban counterparts on an equal footing; seamlessly assimilating and intefrating them into the mainstream of the society.

The Navodaya Vidyalaya System which began as a unique experiment, is today unparalleled in the annals of school education in India and elsewhere. Its significance lies in the selection of talented rural children as the target group and the attempt to provide them quality education comparable to the best in a residential school system.

To establish ,endow, maintain, control,and manage schools(hereinafter called the 'Navodaya Vidyalaya') and to do all acts and things necessary for or conducive to the promotion of such schools which will have the following objectives:

To provide good quality modern education-including a strong component of culture inculcation of values, awareness of the environment, adventure activities and physical education- to the talented children predominantly from the rural areas without regard to their family's socio-economic condition.