Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announces free textbooks, tablets for Navodaya Vidyalaya students

Navodaya Vidyalaya students from Classes 6 to 12 will now get free textbooks and students from Class 9 onwards will receive free tablets, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced on Friday. He was speaking at a meeting with the executive committee of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS). "Tablets will be given to students Class 9 onwards. Free textbooks will be provided to students from Classes 6 -12," the Minister stated while discussing a few other issues and policies regarding education in central schools.

This was the 40th meeting of the executive committee. The meeting panel, which included Pokhriyal, along with the Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre, also decided that the alumni of NVS will be “requested” to adopt schools to make the flow of education more systematic in these institutions. CSR funds will also be mobilised to improve hostels and schools, a new transfer policy will be implemented from next year and recruitment rules for engineering cadre will be revised, added the Education Minister, stating some of the major points during the session.

Dhotre emphasised that the infrastructure of these schools must improve on priority. "Post-COVID, safety and precautions must continue. The spread of digital education should look into the aspects of access and quality," he added. Finally, speaking of a few other salient points, Pokhriyal added that a special recruitment drive will be conducted for the North East, Himalayan regions and Jammu and Kashmir.