School scholarships fail to woo students

PUNE : Ever since the state education department changed the rules for scholarship for middle school and high school students, the number of applicants has plummeted by nearly 50%.
The new rules require students in Standard V (instead of Standard IV earlier) to appear for the Middle School Scholarship exam while those in Standard VIII (instead of Standard VII previously) can appear for the High School Scholarship exam.

The changes were introduced to suit the requirements of the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

Every year, around 16 lakh students appear for these examinations but since the past two years, the Maharashtra State Council of Examination has received only about 8 lakh applications.

Officials said that private schools have not encouraged their students enough to take the exam while the education activists blame the government for not complying with the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Till recently, the exam was conducted for Standard IV and VII. However, with the implementation of the Right to education (RTE) Act, the state government had to extend primary section up to Standard V and secondary education up to Standard VIII.

The situation is similar for 2017 exam and also for the forthcoming exam in 2018, registrations for which will end on December 31. The exam was not conducted in 2016 due to change in rules.

The exam, conducted in 2015, was the last for Standard IV and VII. In 2017, the first exam, based on changed rules, was conducted. The exam council explained that since it was the first year after the change of rules, there was less response.

However, this year too, the situation seems to be the same, education activist Matin Mujawar said.

Teachers have complained to the state education department that in many schools, classes have not been segregated as per the RTE rules bringing the Standard V to primary section and Standard VIII to upper primary section. This has created confusion among many students and schools. "Many primary schools are still functioning till Standard IV and upper primary till Standard VII. The state government has failed to implement the rules effectively, which has led to this situation," Mujawar said.

Meanwhile, Sukhdev Dhere, exam council commisioner, said, "Classes IV and VII in state government schools were controlled by the local self government. However, classes V and VIII are under the secondary education department. This creates confusion. Private schools are less responsive too, and they do not make an effort to make their students fill in forms."

The date for filling forms for the scholarship with regular fees is over while students can fill in forms with late fee up to December 31. As many as 12,000 applications are pending in the system, the exam council has said.