80% students appear for NMMS, PSTS exam in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: This time, 4,459 students appeared for National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam and Punjab State Talent Search Examination (PSTSE) in the district on Sunday.
The exams were conducted for 50,152 government school students of Class VIII at 190 centres in the state and the maximum participation was seen from Ludhiana, where a total of 5,586 students were registered for the exams at 21 centres — 80% students appeared for the exams, including 1,679 boys and 2,780 girls and 1,127 students remained absent.
NMMS, conducted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training. NMMS, aims to improve dropout rate from schools, is a centrally-sponsored scheme for meritorious and economically weaker students of government, government-aided and local body schools. Those who pass Class VIII with at least 55% marks and are regular students in Class IX are eligible to apply for NMMS. The annual family income of the candidate should not be more than Rs 1.5 lakh. A scholarship of Rs 12,000 per annum is awarded to selected students.
PSTSE is conducted by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) for students of Classes VIII–X of government schools,