In a strong drive for education, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday accepted a post-matrical scholarship of 59,000 crore for more than four crore Scheduled Caste (SC) in the next five years. The cabinet authorised a combined expenditure of 59,048 crore. The central government would invest 60% of the initiative, valued at 35,534. The remainder will be supported by the government of the state.
“This removes the current ‘committed responsibility’ regime and enhances the central government’s participation in this vital scheme. The Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for Scheduled Caste students requires students to take any post-matric course from class 11 onwards, with the government paying the cost of tuition. “The focus of the scheme would be on enrolling the poorest students, timely payments, comprehensive accountability, continuous monitoring and total transparency,” the cabinet said in the release.
A initiative will be initiated to engage pupils, from the poorest families to the 10th grade, in higher education courses of their choosing. It is projected that 1,36 crore of the poorest students who are not actually pursuing their education above the 10th level will be taken into the higher education system in the next 5 years.
The scheme will be run on an online platform with stringent cyber protection controls to ensure transparency, accountability, quality and prompt delivery of assistance without any delays, as stated in the release.
The States shall check on the online portal the qualifications, caste status, Aadhar identity and bank account information of the applicants.
Transfer of financial assistance to students under the scheme is in DBT mode, preferably using the Aadhar allowed payment mechanism, the statement said. Starting in 2021-22, the central share (60 per cent) of the scheme will be released directly to the student bank accounts in DBT mode, as per a specified timeline, after ensuring that the government of the State concerned released its share. Monitoring mechanism will be further strengthened through conduct of social audits, annual third party evaluation, and half-yearly self-audited reports from each institution, it added.
The central Assistance which was around ₹1,100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20 would be increased more than five times to be around ₹6,000 core annually during 2020-21 to 2025-26.
