(The Gist of PIB) National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme

National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme

• The Central Sector Scheme ‘National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme’ (NMMSS) is being implemented since 2008 with the objective to award scholarships to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.
  • Under the Scheme one lakh fresh scholarships @ of Rs.12000/- per annum per student are awarded to selected students of class IX every year and their continuation/renewal in classes X to XII for study in a State Government, Government-aided and Local body schools.

Key highlights:

• There is a separate quota of scholarships for each State/UT. The selection of students for award of scholarships under the scheme is made through an examination conducted by the States/UTs Governments. As on date approx 16.93 lakh scholarships have been sanctioned to the Students across the country.
• The scheme has been on National Scholarship Portal (NSP) since 2015-16.
• The NSP has been developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) for streamlining and fast tracking the release of Scholarships across Ministries / Departments with efficiency, transparency and reliability.
• The eligible students from different States/UTs register themselves on NSP.

Background:

• The Scheme was evaluated by the National Institute of Planning and Administration (NIEPA).
• As per the evaluation study report, the scheme helped poor families in sending their meritorious children for secondary and senior secondary education and has therefore recommended for increasing the scholarship amount from Rs. 500/- to Rs. 1000/- per month for class IX and class X students and Rs. 1500/- per month for Class XI and XII students to make the scheme more attractive and effective.
• Accordingly, with the approval of the Expenditure Finance Committee the rate of scholarship has been enhanced from Rs. 6000/- to Rs. 12000/- per annum with effect from 1st April, 2017.

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Courtesy: PIB