NEW DELHI: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has announced that the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) has been stalled until further orders.
The coveted scholarship programme is funded by the Education Ministry and hosted by the NCERT.
According to the official notice by the NCERT, “The National Talent Search Scheme is a central sector scheme fully funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE) Government of India (Gol). NCERT is an implementing agency for the NTS scheme. The Scheme was approved till 31st March 2021.”
“The further implementation of the scheme in its present form has not been approved and stalled until further orders. This is for the information of all concerned,” the notice said.
Officials said that the scholarship had been postponed as the ministry plans to revamp the scheme, and that is why it has been put on hold till the final approval.
The scholarship exam is conducted annually in two stages - stage 1 (state level) and stage 2 (national level). While states show the first stage, the second stage is hosted by NCERT.
A total of 2000 scholarships are awarded in the country with a reservation of 15 percent for scheduled caste, 7.5 percent for scheduled tribes and 27 percent for other backward classes and four percent for a group of students with benchmark disabilities.
The test is available in Asamiya, Bangla, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
The scholarship is awarded to the candidates for pursuing courses in science and social science up to the doctoral level and in professional courses like medicine and engineering up to the second-degree level, subject to the fulfilment of the conditions
While a scholarship of Rs. 1250 per month is awarded to students of class XI and XII, Rs. 2000 per month is given to UG and PG students. Scholarship for students pursuing PhD is by the UGC norms.