PUNE: Out of the 11,682 students from the State, who have been selected under the National Means cum Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMS) this year, only 1,141 are from the government schools, while 10,541 are from private aided schools.
The list of the selected candidates has been declared online by the Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE).
Speaking about the lower number of students from the schools run by the government or rural bodies, MSCE Chairman Dattatray Jagtap said, “The number of government (mainly Zilla Parishad) schools that have classes up to or above Std VIII is very low. Mostly, the students study at government schools till Std VII and then, get enrolled in privately aided schools. This may be one of the reasons why there is a lower number of students from these schools clearing the examinations.”
On being questioned about why there is a huge difference between the number of students from government schools to have appeared the examination to the number of students to have passed, Jagtap added that most of the appearing candidates may have been from the rural areas.
However, the figures provided by the MSCE show that the number of candidates to have been selected from rural Maharashtra is much higher compared to the urban areas. While 7,893 candidates have been selected from the State’s rural areas, 3,789 are urban.
The scholarship scheme is being managed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to identify meritorious students through the examination and help them financially to complete their education till Std XII. From 2017-18, the amount that is being given as scholarship is Rs 1,000 per month.
For NMMS Std VIII examination, which was held on December 9, 2018, a total of 1,15,222 students had appeared. The MHRD has sanctioned a scholarship quota of Rs 11,682 for the State.
