E-Paper
NMMSS scholarships: Students of just seven UP districts bag 100% quota on offer
Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than ₹3,50,000 per annum are eligible for the scholarship
Despite all efforts of the basic education department to ensure benefits of National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) 2023-24 to as many students as possible, only seven districts of the state have so far managed to fill their allotted quota for the scholarship. The ministry of education had fixed a quota of 15,143 seats of this scholarship for Uttar Pradesh students. The district-wise number of scholarships was also fixed.
The scholarships under NMMSS, launched in 2008, are awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to check their drop-out rate after Class 8. The scholarship amount is ₹12,000 per annum at a rate of ₹1,000 per month to enable students to study from Class 9 to Class 12.
One lakh fresh scholarships are awarded in the country to selected students of Class 9 every year and their continuation/renewal in Classes 10 to 12 for study in state government, government-aided and local body schools under the scheme.
Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than ₹3,50,000 per annum are eligible for the scholarship. The students must have minimum of 55% marks or equivalent grade in Class 8 examination (5% relaxation to SC/ST students) for appearing in selection test for the scholarship.
The students should be studying as regular student in a government, government-aided and local body school. Students of Navodaya schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and residential schools are not entitled to the scholarship.
“The results have been declared and made available on the official website of Examination Regulatory Authority, UP— https://entdata.co.in/,” said Usha Chandra, director of Bureau of Psychology, UP and the state coordinator of NMMS Exams-2023. The Bureau of Psychology is the coordinating body of the NMMSS in the state.
As per the recently declared result of the scholarship, only 14,090 meritorious students have been found eligible for the scholarship as they have cleared the exam for the coveted scholarship held on November 13, 2022. Last year, only 6,456 students across the state had qualified for the coveted scholarship.
The seven districts of the state, where meritorious students have been able to bag all the allotted quota of seats include Ballia (251), Balrampur (118), Deoria (235), Ghazipur (184), Gorakhpur (307), Mirzapur (233) and Varanasi (269). This year, a record of 1,79,971 students had applied for the scholarship out of which 1,45,702 candidates had appeared in the examination.
Earlier, there was lack of awareness among the children of UP regarding this prestigious scholarship exam. As a result, very few students used to sit for the exam and therefore the number of students clearing the exam was also quite low.
But for this year’s examination, director general, school education, UP, Vijay Kiran Anand took personal interest and made concerted efforts to get the children registered for the scholarship. The Bureau of Psychology had even organised a workshop to help in the preparation of the children, as a result of which 14,090 meritorious students succeeded in getting scholarship this year.
Last year, only 38,837 children had filled the form and against 15,143 seats only 6,456 could get scholarship, officials said. Students of 68 out of 75 districts could not achieve a cent percent success rate in comparison to the allotted seats. Maximum of 99 seats of the scholarship went unoccupied in Bijnor.
Against 338 seats in this district, only 239 students were successful. Likewise, against 150 seats in Sambhal, 63 students were successful. In Azamgarh, of the 459 seats, 66 seats remained vacant. In Moradabad, out of 228 seats, 63 seats remained vacant while in Gonda, out of 254 seats, 61 seats were vacant.
