( DEFENCE EDUCATION ACADEMY ) started functioning with effect from 1st September 2008. The Sainik Schools are a system of schools in India conceived in 1961 by V. K. Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister of India and established by the MoD under the aegis of the School Society to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the Indian Armed Forces, by preparing students for entry into the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Pune. Today there are 33 such schools covering almost all the states of the country