Ministry of Education organises one-day workshop on National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme in Delhi

The Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education (MoE), organized a One Day National Workshop with State/UT and District level Officers implementing the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) on 10.03.2026 in New Delhi. Shri Sanjay Kumar, Secretary, DoSEL chaired the Workshop.

Secretary, DoSEL led the deliberations, focusing on the effective implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 at the grassroots level. The review covered State/UT performance, specifically targeting quota utilization and scholarship continuity for students from Classes IX to XII.

Ms. A. Srija, Economic Advisor, DoSEL, Shri Bhupal Nanda, Principal CCA, MoE, Dr. Pankaj K P Shreyaskar, Deputy Director General (Statistics), DoSEL were among the officials who were part of the deliberations.

Dr. Pankaj K.P. Shreyaskar, Deputy Director General (Statistics), highlighted the evolution of UDISE+ into a real-time, digital-first platform. Ms. A. Srija, Economic Advisor (DoSEL), underscored the necessity of timely verification by State-Level Officers on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) to ensure students from economically weaker sections receive payments without delay.

The interactive session with the State Nodal Officers of the scheme provided practical guidance and solutions to the challenges faced at the grassroot level of the scheme. The initiative reflects DoSEL's unwavering commitment to ensuring timely, transparent, and student-centric implementation of central scholarship schemes across the region.

Under the Central Sector Scheme namely the 'National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme' scholarships are awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their dropout at class VIII and encourage them to continue their education at the secondary stage. One lakh fresh scholarships are awarded to selected students from class IX every year and their continuation/renewal in classes X to XII for students studying in State Government, Government-aided and local body schools. The amount of the scholarship is Rs. 12000 per annum.

Students whose parental income from all sources is not more than Rs. 3,50,000 per annum are eligible to avail the scholarships. The students must have a minimum of 55% marks or equivalent grade in the Class VII examination to appear in the selection test for the award of a scholarship (relaxable by 5% for SC/ST students).

Technical Sessions covered in the Workshop included operation of PAO-DBT module by PFMS-MoF & PAO-MoE, Aadhar seeding of student beneficiary bank accounts by NPCI, best case practices in implementation of NMMSS by States of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh followed by interactive session on clarification of queries related to NSP portal raised by the States/UTs by DoSEL and NSP.

****

AK