Change in Pre-Matric scholarship scheme: check details

From the year 2022-23, the pre-matric scholarship scheme is available for students only in Class 9 and 10, informed Virendra Kumar, Minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

It has been decided to provide scholarship to students only from class 9 and 10 under Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme for OBCs from the year 2021-22. Under the scheme of pre-matric scholarships to Scheduled Castes (SC) and others, Pre-Matric scholarship is being provided only to class 9 and 10 students since the launch of the scheme in 2012-13.

As per PIB report, the Central Share is directly released to the Bank Account of beneficiaries through DBT mode after the States release their share of the amount to the students for the Pre-Matric Scholarship to SC, with effect from 2022-23.

Moreover, the Central share for 2022-23 under pre-matric scholarship for SC will be released only after receiving the verified data from the respective State Government/UTs. Pre-Matric OBC Scheme is being implemented through the respective State Governments/ UTs. Every financial year, funds are allocated to all States/UTs from the overall annual outlay of the Scheme.

“Earlier the students from Economically Weaker sections were not provided Pre-Matric scholarship but in the revised scheme they are also being considered for Pre-Matric scholarship for classes 9 and 10,” PIB report said.

Meanwhile, the enrolment of class 1 to 8 in Government schools has increased in the last 3 (Three) years by about 1 (One) crore. Further, to incentivise children from these communities to attend school, the Government is providing free education, free uniform, free meal etc. under different programmes/ schemes like Samagrha Shiksha Abhiyan, PM Poshan, etc.