Under this scheme, 100,000 scholarships are awarded to the gifted or meritorious students whose parental income is not more than Rs. 1,50,000/- per annum from all sources. Each State /UT have fixed quota of scholarship as given at Annexure of concerned age group of class VII and VIII. The scheme would provide reservation to different categories of students as per the State/UT norms; as different States/UTs have their own norms of reservation.
These scholarships will be provided on yearly basis to the students studying as regular students in class IX in a Government, Government-aided and local body schools which will be renewed for classes X, XI and XII. Thus the scholarships will be for a maximum period of four years.The amount of scholarship will be Rs. 12000/- per annum @ Rs. 1000 per month. A separate examination shall be conducted by the State Governments/UT Administrations for selection of students for the award of the National Meanscum-Merit Scholarships in the States/UTs.
Procedure for Selection of Awardee Students
Each State/UT will conduct its own test for selection of students for the award of the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship. The State Level Examination may consist of the following two tests:
(i) Mental Ability Test (MAT)
(ii) Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)
The students shall have minimum of 55 % marks or equivalent grade in Class VII examination for appearing in selection test for award of scholarship (relax able by 5% for SC/ST students). The students should be studying as regular student in a Government, Government-aided and local body schools.
Mental Ability Test may consist of 90 multiple-choice questions testing verbal and non-verbal meta-cognitive abilities like reasoning and critical thinking. The questions in the test may be on analogy, classification, numerical series, pattern perception, hidden figure etc.
Scholastic Aptitude Test may consist of 90 multiple-choice questions covering subjects namely, science, social studies and mathematics as taught in classes VII and VIII.
Duration of the Test Each test will be of 90 minutes duration. Children with disability will be given extra time, as applicable.
General Eligibility Conditions
An awardee is eligible for the scholarship provided he/she:
i. takes up studies in approved courses.
ii. maintains good conduct as certified by the Head of the College/Institution and continues his/her studies as a regular student in a Government/Government-aided /Local Body school.
iii. does not absent himself/herself without proper leave.
iv. takes up studies on a whole time basis.
v. does not take up any job.
- No scholarship shall be available for studies abroad for any course.
- No claim for scholarship arrears will be entertained after the expiry of 12 months of the academic session for which one has applied for the claim.
- In case any awardee leaves his/her course of study within one month of registration/admission, no scholarship shall be paid to him/her.
- In case awardee is not able to appear at the annual examination due to serious illness, one should send the medical certificate through the Head of the Institution within three months of one’s falling ill. The duration of illness should be clearly certified by a specialist, who is a Registered Medical Practitioner. The facility will be available to the awardee to continue the same course in which one is studying provided the principal or the head of the institution certifies that the overall performance of the awardee during the year is 50% or above.
- The awardee must join the next class/desired course within 3 months of the declaration of the result of the previous class/course.
- Scholarship shall be deemed to be discontinued with any gap of one academic session in studies at any time due to any reason.
- Scholarship once discontinued on the basis of the rules of disbursement of scholarship cannot be revived under any circumstances.
- All rules are subject to change from time to time, as and when required, which will be binding on all awardees.
Eligibility and other conditions for starting and continuing of Scholarship at Secondary and Higher Secondary Stage
- The awardees should get clear promotion from class VIII to Class IX for being eligible for starting the scholarship.
- The scholarship at the secondary and higher secondary stage or equivalent classes IX to XII is payable for a maximum period of four years for studies in India only.
- No scholarship at this stage is payable for studying diploma/certificate level courses.
- For continuing the scholarship in class X and XII, the awardees should get clear promotion from class IX to class X and from class XI to class XII in the first attempt with 55% marks (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students)
- The awardees must obtain a minimum of 60 per cent marks in Class X (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students) examination or equivalent examination for continuation of the scholarship at higher secondary stage.
- In case an institution/school does not conduct an examination at the end of Class IX and / or Class XI, the scholarship for the second year will be continued on the submission of a certificate to this effect from the Head of the Institution/School.
The selection test for the awarded of scholarship will be conducted for Class IX students in November every year as a separate test by the State Governments/UT Administrations.
A Technical Support Group (TSG) consisting of Consultants / support staff etc. may be constituted for assisting in effective implementation and monitoring of the scheme.
The scheme will be monitored in the Department at regular intervals with the concerned Stake holders.
The scheme may be reviewed after three years.
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Important Dates
Last Date to Apply 30-Nov-2021
