At present, there are 33 Sainik Schools across India. File. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that all Sainik Schools in the country will now be open for girls also. At present, 33 Sainik schools are operating in the country.
During his Independence Day speech Sunday, the prime minister said that two-and-a-half years ago, the maiden experiment of admitting girls in Sainik schools was carried out in Mizoram.
“Now, the government has decided that all the Sainik schools in the country will also be open for the daughters of the country,” he said.
Sainik schools are run by the Sainik Schools Society which is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence. The aim of establishing Sainik schools was to prepare the students from an early age for their entry into the Indian armed forces.
A provision for 100 new Sainik Schools to be set up in partnership with NGOs, private schools and states was announced in the Union Budget for 2021-22 fiscal. Top retired military officials had welcomed the decision but cautioned that the structure of these institutions should not be tampered with.
Students are selected for Sainik Schools through an annual entrance examination. They are inducted at the middle-school level. Until students complete their secondary education at these schools, they receive extensive training in sports, adventure activities, extracurricular subjects along with routine academics with an aim to prepare them for military training institutions.
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