CM’s Merit Scholarship Scheme doubles intake, 200 students will benefit this year

GANGTOK, 20 Dec: Screening tests for the Chief Minister’s Merit Scholarship Scheme 2012-13 session will be conducted by the Human Resource Development Department on 05 January 2012. The selection test is scheduled to begin at all district headquarters simultaneously at 10:30 AM on the day.
The center for candidates from East Sikkim will be at Deorali Girls Senior Secondary School, likewise, Kyongsa Girls SSS is the centre for West Sikkim, Mangan SSS for North Sikkim and New Namchi SS for South Sikkim.
Addressing a press conference today, HRDD Secretary, CS Rao, informed that class V toppers from 779 primary schools across the state will be sitting for the selection test. The intake capacity under this scheme for the session 2012-13 has been doubled to 200 from 100 seats of the previous year, he informed.
He further informed that on the Chief Minister’s direction, the scheme was started in the 2010-11 academic session with 50 seats and it was doubled to 100 seats for the 2011-12 session and it will again be doubled next year.
Candidates should have a Sikkim Subject and should have completed their class I to V studies in a government school in order to apply for this scholarship.
“This time the department has issued nomination forms to all 779 primary schools and clear cut instructions have given to the head of the school to nominate their candidate from the school for the screening test,” the Secretary informs.
He further added that in the form, the head of the school needs to certify the criteria mentioned in the form in order to ensure the application’s authenticity.  It was informed that if a candidate does not fulfill the criteria then the next eligible candidate would be nominated by the head of the school.
The screening test of 3 hours will have question papers on English, Mathematics, Environmental Sciences and General Knowledge carrying 25 marks each. The results will be declared by 10 January.
The Secretary informed that this time out of 200 candidates, 40 will be sent to schools outside the state and rest 160 will be admitted to different reputed private schools across Sikkim.
Schools outside the state for the scheme are Pinegrove School in Himachal Pradesh, Aryan School in Uttrakhand and Scindia School in Madhya Pradesh, while schools within Sikkim are Tashi Namgyal Academy, St Xavier’s Pakyong, Namchi Public School, Don Bosco Malbasey and St Joseph Martam.
The Secretary stated that some more schools will be added to this list which is being processed by the department.
“Our students at different schools under this scheme in and outside the state are performing very well and even the schools have expressed their happiness and satisfaction on the performance of these candidates”, Mr Rao further said.
Responding to media queries, the Secretary mentioned that the state government has been spending around Rs 3 lakh on each candidate every year. The first batch of 50 students were selected through a screening test for the 2010-11 session, wherein on the basis of merit,10 were admitted in schools outside Sikkim and 40 were admitted to public schools within the state.
Likewise, in 2011-12 wherein 100 students were selected, 20 were admitted to schools outside the state and the rest within the state. At present a total of 150 students under this scheme are studying in different schools within and outside the state.
The press conference was also addressed by Joint Director, IK Chettri and Assistant Director, KD Bhutia.