The Odisha government on Wednesday collaborated with the Unacademy, country premier educational technology company, to provide free-of-cost scholarships to meritorious students of the State.
As per the agreement which will be valid for a period of 3 years, all students of classes 10, 11 and 12 of government and government aided schools across the state will be eligible to take the test to avail the scholarships.
Unacademy in partnership with Department of School and Mass Education (DoSME) will conduct a series of aptitude tests where qualifying students will be eligible to receive scholarships to study on Unacademy platform. They will be selected on the basis of ranks secured in the test.
During the term of the MoU, a total of 3000 students (1000 per year) shall recieve the benefit of scholarships.
Two batches of aptitude tests - one for science stream and other for non-science stream students will be conducted every year with the gap between them being not longer than 6 months.
As per the agreement, 500 students will receive scholarships on the basis of rank in each batch. While, 200 IIT-JEE/NEET-UG scholarships will be awarded to students from Science stream, 300 Defence/CA/other exam scholarships will be awarded to students from non-science stream.
The question paper for the tests will be set by Top Educators of Unacademy.
The DoSME will be responsible to provide the list of students at least 45 days prior to the test in a mutually decided format. Upon receiving the list, Unacademy will consider it as final without the need to verify the same, the MoU read.
A student who secures a scholarship during the term of this MoU shall not be eligible to take any further tests. If he/she does, then the candidate shall be disqualified from receiving the scholarship.