In Jharkhand, schooling starts from the age of 5. The schools of Jharkhand are affiliated to either the State Board of Secondary Education, or to Delhi based CBSE or ICSE boards. The medium of instruction in the former case is Hindi, whereas CBSE and ICSE run schools have English as the medium of instruction. The Sarva Shiksha Avijan policy of the Central Government had good effects in Jharkhand. In recent years, the state has taken up free and compulsory education policy for the poverty-stricken children up to 14 years.
There are as many as 21,386 schools in Jharkhand. Jharkhand schools follow the 10+2 system of education. There is one CBSE school each in Agrico, Chatra, Dumka, Godda, Palamu, Saraikela, Latehar, Jahanabad, Gumla, Garhwa, Jamshedpur and Bustupur. There are two CBSE schools in Deoghar, Koderma and Giridih, three in Hazaribagh, five in Singhbhum, eight in Dhanbad and Bokaro and nine CBSE schools in Ranchi. As far ICSE schools in Jharkhand is concerned, there is one at Sahebganj, Palamu, Hirapur, Godda and Dumka, two at hazaribagh, three at Deoghar and Bokaro, seven at Dhanbad, nine at Ranchi, ten at Singhbhum and as many as seventeen at Jamshedpur. The pioneering schools of Jharkhand are:
- SDSM School for Excellence, CBSE, Agrico
- Hill Top School
- Jawahar Navudaya Vidyalaya
- Rajendra Vidyalaya
- Carmel School
- St. Joseph's School
- St. Francis School
- ADLS Sunshine School
- Little Flower School
- Kerala Samajam Model School
- D.E. Nobili School
- Dayanand Public School
- Loyola School
- Carmel School
- Motilal Nehru Public School
- Kerala Public School
- Jharkhand Residential schools
- Jharkhand Convent Schools
- Jharkhand KVS Schools
- Jharkhand DAV Schools
- Jharkhand DPS Schools
