Schools should ensure 50 pc of students getting scholarship pass or face blacklisting

Educational institutions covered under the centrally-sponsored post-matric scholarship scheme for Scheduled Caste students will have to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the beneficiaries pass and move to higher class, failing which they will be blacklisted.

This is part of the revised norms notified yesterday by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The revision of the norms is aimed at checking malpractice by educational institutions, said a senior ministry official.

"There have been cases where educational institutes have pocketed large amount of scholarship amount under the post-matric scholarship scheme for SCs by showing fake admissions. Or the educational institutions would admit students and get the scholarship amount and not teach them properly as a result of which the students would fail. The revised norms will put an end to such malpractice," the official said.

Also, as per the revised norms, the mandatory payment of maintenance allowance and non-refundable fees will henceforth go into the accounts of the student beneficiaries only.

The scholarship amount is released by the states and the practice so far was that the fees amount was being given to the institution while the maintenance amount was given to the students, the official said.

"But it was noticed that the several private and government institutions swindled money by charging fees from the students," the official said.

Now there will be end-to-end processing online, verification of eligibility credentials to ensure greater transparency and to control duplicity and wrongful claims by institutions.

As per the revised norms, the state governments and union territories will frame modalities regarding periodical and timely release of scholarship (including fees) to the accounts of the students, so that they can pay the fees to the institution on time and not be subjected to any penalties for late payment and non-payment of fees.

The scheme provides financial assistance to Scheduled Caste students studying at post-matriculation or post-secondary stage to enable them to complete their education. These scholarships are available for studies in India only.