– Ronita Torcato 

The last date for submission of online applications for meritorious students from economically weaker sections for 2025-26 under the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS) has been extended to September 30, 2025.

The process of submission of applications has been underway on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) since June 2, 2025.

Students are first required to do a one- time registration before uploading the required documents.

A total of 85,420 new and 1,72,027 renewal applications were submitted by August 31, 2025. 

“This is a boon from the authorities,” a bouyant student, requesting anonymity, said, “four months is a good deal but we have to run around getting the required documents some of which take months to obtain.”

Every year, over one lakh students of class IX who have passed the qualifying examination conducted by the states and union territories are given an annual scholarship of Rs. 12,000 each . The scholarship continues on a renewable basis from class X to XII based on the academic merit.

By implementing this scheme, the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Ministry of Education, hopes to reduce the dropout rate after 8th standard and to encourage the students to complete their education up to 12th standard.

It may be noted that the scheme is applicable only to students studying in schools run by local bodies or government aided schools.

The scholarship amount is deposited in the bank accounts of the students through Direct Benefit Transfer ( DBT) mode of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) .

The eligibility criteria for the scholarship stipulates that the annual income of the parents should not exceed Rs 3.50 lakh. Also, students are required to get at least 55 percent marks in class 7 (there is 5 percent relaxation for SC/ST students).

Applications are verified at two levels: at the first level (L1) by the Institute Nodal Officer (INO) who is authorised to accept applications till 15 October 2025. The second level ( L2) is with the District Nodal Officer (DNO). The last date for submission at this level is 31 October 2025.

Students interested to know more about the registration process may access this link: https://scholarships.gov.in/studentFAQs 

Also read: CBSE makes 75% attendance mandatory for 2026 board exams