In a big push for education, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved ₹Post Matric Scholarship of 59,000 crore for more than four crore of Scheduled Caste (SC) in the next five years. The cabinet approved a total investment of ₹59,048 crore. The central government will spend 60% of the program estimated at ₹35,534. The rest will be provided by the state government. “This replaces the existing system of ‘committed responsibility’ and brings a greater participation of the Central Government in this crucial scheme,” the Union Cabinet said in a statement.
The post-matriculation scholarship scheme for scheduled caste students allows students to follow any post-matriculation course from class 11 onwards, and the cost of education is paid by the government. “The focus of the scheme would be on enrolling the poorest students, punctual payments, comprehensive accountability, continuous monitoring and total transparency,” the cabinet said in the statement.
A campaign will be launched to enroll students, from the poorest households above the 10th standard, in the higher education courses of their choice. It is estimated that 1.36 million rupees of the poorest students, who currently do not continue their education beyond the 10th level, would enter the higher education system in the next 5 years.
The scheme will run on an online platform with strong cybersecurity measures that would ensure transparency, accountability, efficiency and timely delivery of assistance without delay, the statement said.
States will verify applicants’ eligibility, caste status, Aadhar ID, and bank account details on the online portal.
The transfer of financial assistance to students under the scheme will be in DBT mode, and preferably using the payment system enabled by Aadhar, the statement said. Starting in 2021-22, the central stake (60%) in the scheme would be released in DBT mode directly into student bank accounts on a fixed time schedule, after ensuring that the state government in question has released their participation.
The follow-up mechanism will be further strengthened by conducting social audits, an annual third-party evaluation and semi-annual self-audited reports from each institution, he added.
The central assistance that was around ₹1,100 crore annually during 2017-18 to 2019-20 would be increased more than five times to be around ₹6,000 annual cores during 2020-21 to 2025-26.
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