100,000 scholarships to students to prevent school dropout

New Delhi, March 5: The government awards 100,000 scholarships to selected meritorious students of Class 9 from economically weaker sections in order to prevent them from dropping out of school, the human resource development ministry said.

The Department of School Education and Literacy is administering a centrally-sponsored National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme, under which scholarships are given to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their dropout at Class 8 and encourage them to continue their studies.

The scholarship is given to students whose parental income is not more than Rs.1.5 lakh per year.

The state reservation policy is being followed. Under another central scholarship scheme for college and university students, financial assistance is provided to meritorious students from low income families to meet a part of their day-to-day expenses while pursuing higher studies.

The scholarship is provided to students whose parental income should not exceed Rs.6 lakh per annum. The scheme is for students of the general and reserved category students, an official statement said.

Under another scheme, special scholarships are awarded to students of Jammu and Kashmir for pursuing higher studies after passing out of school.

The scholarship scheme is to provide tuition fees, hostel fees, cost of books and other incidental charges to students from Jammu and Kashmir who, after passing Class 12 are pursuing general degree courses, engineering and medical studies in government colleges/institutes/other non-government institutes located outside the state.

The scholarship is for students whose parental income is not more than Rs.6 lakh per year. The scheme is for students of both general and reserved category.

Under the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), 4,000 scholarships are available per year to be given to girls admitted to AICTE-approved institutions or programmes of Diploma and Undergraduate Degree level.

Only one girl child per family whose parental income is less than Rs.6 lakh per year can avail the scholarship.

Under a scheme for differently abled students, eligible differently abled students having parental income of less than Rs.6 lakh per year and who are already admitted to technical programmes/courses in AICTE approved Institutions during 2014-15 are eligible under the scheme, the statement said.

Special scholarships are provided to students of the northeastern region, under a scheme called Ishan Uday, under the University Grants Commission (UGC).

Under the Ishan Uday scholarship scheme, it is aimed to provide 10,000 scholarships every year from the academic year 2014-15. The income of parents of the students should not exceed Rs.4.5 lakh per annum.

The information was given by Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.

IANS