As per the existing regulations, only students who have passed the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exams from public schools are eligible for scholarships under the reservation quotas.[break] This provision is intended to ensure that only students from impoverished and backward groups will obtain scholarships under reserved quota. However, there is a growing perception among government officials that students from well-off families are using loopholes in the regulations to bag the reserved quota scholarships.
According to officials, some students who attend elite private schools appear in the SLC exams from public schools, apparently to be eligible for reserved scholarship quotas.
"Though they belong to indigenous and Dalit groups, for whom the reserved scholarship quotas are principally meant, our objectives remain fulfilled," said an official at the Ministry of Education (MoE), adding, "We want to select genuinely poor students even from among the indigenous and Dalit groups. Most students who attend private schools do not really require scholarship quotas."
Therefore, according to highly placed sources at MoE, amendment of the scholarship provisions is being mulled with the objective of discouraging well-to-do students from using loopholes. "Since we cannot ask indigenous and Dalit students not to shift from private to public schools just to be eligible for scholarship quotas irrespective of how well-off their families are, we are holding discussions to amend the existing regulations," a MoE official said. "This is also a way of encouraging better-off parents to send their children to public schools."
According to sources, during meetings of the Scholarship Determining Committee (SDC) headed by the education minister, some officials have proposed making it mandatory for students seeking reserved quota scholarships to join public schools at least from grade seven. However, some officials have proposed making it mandatory for them to spend at least four years -- grade 9 to 12 --in public school to be eligible for the reserved quotas.
The second proposition seems stronger as the School Sector Reform Program (SSRP), which seeks to bring four grades (9-12) under secondary level, is already under implementation. As per the existing regulations, even students who study grade 11 and 12 in private higher secondary schools after passing the SLC from public schools can claim reserved quota scholarships.
"We have not taken any decision as of now," said Mahashram Sharma, joint-secretary at MoE who looks after the scholarship section. "However, reserved scholarship quotas are meant for the needy. We are flexible in making changes to ensure that well-off students will not snatch away their opportunities."
MoE has been providing scholarships mainly for medical studies and has allocated a maximum of 40 percent of the total scholarship quota for the impoverished, women, the physically disabled, indigenous and Dalits (socially oppressed people) and students from areas that the government deems remote.
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