No Pre-matric Scholarships for Class 1 to 8 Students: Centre

New Delhi: The Union government has announced that the pre-matric scholarship scheme will now be limited to class 9 and 10 students. The notification issued by the Centre said the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, makes it obligatory for the government to provide free and compulsory elementary education (classes 1 to 8) to each and every child in India and therefore, the students from classes 1 to 8 belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Community (OBC) and minority communities will not be eligible to receive the pre-matric scholarship from the academic year 2022-23.

“Only students in classes 9 and 10 are now covered under the pre-matric scholarship scheme,” the notification read.

It said “From 2022-23, the coverage under the pre-matric scholarship scheme of the ministry of minority affairs shall also be for classes 9 and 10 only.”

As per the pre-matric scholarship scheme, class 1 to 10 students of SC, ST, OBS and minority communities would be eligible to apply for the scholarship if their parents annual income does not exceed Rs 2.50 lakh per annum. Under the  pre-matric scholarship scheme, day scholars would get Rs 225 per month and Rs 525 per month for hostel residents for a period of 10 months in an academic year. 

As per reports, the concerned ministry has rejected crores of applications of students from class 1 to 8 and the Union government has instructed all States and Union Territories to scrutinise applications of only class 9 and 10 students. 

Criticising the Centre’s move to stop scholarships for students from lower classes, Congress MP Randeep Singh Sujewala said it’s a ‘conspiracy against the poor’.

“The BJP has been continuously doing such things for the past 8 years whether it was cutting the budget of SC/ST/OBC and minorities or it was about atrocities against them or ending their welfare schemes and now this. We do not accept this. We will run a movement against it. Immediately take back this decision,” Sujewala said. 

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(With PTI inputs)