The Navodaya Vidyalaya System is a unique experiment 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 with quality education comparable to the best in a residential school system. Such children are found in all sections of society, and in all areas including the most backward. But, so far, good quality education has been available only to well-to-do sections of society, and the poor  have  been left out. It was felt that children with special talent or aptitude should be provided opportunities to proceed at a faster pace, by making good quality education available to them, irrespective of their capacity to pay for it.These talented children otherwise would have been deprived of quality modern education traditionally available only in the urban areas. Such education would enable students from rural areas to compete with their urban counterparts on an equal footing. The National Policy on Education-1986 envisaged the setting up of residential schools, to be called Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas that would bring out the best of rural talent.

 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are co-educational residential schools primarily for the children from rural areas which aim at :

• To provide good quality modern education including a strong component of culture, inculcation of values, awareness of the environment, adventure and physical education to the talented children from the rural areas. Students in the Navodaya Vidyalayas are admitted in Class-VI and provided education upto Class-XII. Now provision is made for lateral entry of students in Class-IX & XI also.
• To ensure that all students of Navodaya Vidyalayas attain a reasonable level of competency in three languages as envisaged in Three Language Formula.
• To serve in each district as focal point for improvement in the quality of school education through sharing of experience and facilities.