SSC students lead the league

The NTS examination,meant for Class VIII students,is conducted by National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

The overall performance of state students in NTS examination has been exceedingly well as they have grabbed highest 217 scholarships. Of 217,150 are boys and 67 girls. While 129 are English medium students,88 are from Marathi medium schools. Of these 217 scholarship holders,15 are from Pune district.

“The number of SSC Board students getting NTS scholarship is higher this year too since many schools have been focusing on the studies well,” said Mahaveer Mane,commissioner of Maharashtra State Examination Council (MSEC) that is headquartered in Pune.

“Around 65,000 students had appeared for the state-level exam conducted by MSEC,of which 500 made it for the national level. After an interview,217 were selected,” he said. Mane said number of students from rural background appearing for examination and clearing it has increased. “As many as 71 successful students are from SC and ST category,” he said. The successful students will get Rs 500 as scholarship per month till Class XII. After Class XII up to PhD level,these students get incentive in a range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 annualy as per the norms of the Centre.

Mane said only 35 ICSE and CBSE board students could make it for the final tally of 500. Of them,no ICSE student got the scholarship. T T Burrows,principal of Vidya Pratishthan’s Bal Vikas Mandir School,said since the ICSE syllabus is very vast the students hardly get time to prepare for other exams. “But it is up to individual student to appear for NTS.”