Students from economically weaker sections will be given fee waivers at six universities in the Capital, with a new merit-cum-means scholarship scheme being launched by the Delhi government.
Announcing the scheme on Tuesday, Education Minister Manish Sisodia said the fee waiver would apply to undergraduate students starting the upcoming academic session.
Big boon
The scheme would be introduced at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi Technological University, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi, Ambedkar University, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University for Women, and Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University.
Mr. Sisodia said students below the poverty line, or those who have National Food Security Scheme cards, would be given a 100% fee waiver.
Students whose families earn up to ₹2.5 lakh per year will be given 50% waiver and those with family incomes of ₹2.5 lakh till ₹6 lakh will get 25% waivers.
In addition to the financial background, the merit of students will count, with a minimum of 60% marks needed. Students of reserved categories will get a relaxation in the minimum marks.
“This is for the first time that a fee waiver scheme has been opened to those with family incomes of up to ₹6 lakh. We are expecting 20,000 to 25,000 students to avail of the scheme,” said Mr. Sisodia.
He added that the government had allocated ₹10 crore for the upcoming academic year. The scheme would be funded by the Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust. The beneficiaries will also get ₹5,000 each every year for additional expenses.
In a first, the Minister also announced a career counselling programme for students of Classes X-XII in government schools. Each of the about 1,110 schools will have one counsellor, and the initiative is likely to benefit around 4 lakh students.
Training started
The United Nations Development Programme would be the main partner and the training of the counsellors had begun, said Mr. Sisodia.
“The students will be evaluated and the data will be available online,” he said, adding that only 3% of private schools in the city provided one-on-one counselling to students.
