Odisha govt revises scholarship to attract students to join Sainik School

BHUBANESWAR: Worried over declining number of applications for admission in Sainik School, Bhubaneswar the state government has announced new scholarship for poor and meritorious students of the state. The government has agreed for a uniform scholarship scheme where students can get full scholarship at par with the tuition fee being charged with income slabs ranging between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.Apart from Sainik School Bhubaneswar applications are also sought for admission in second Sainik School of the state at Sambalpur, which will commence from next academic session.
"Due to constant increase in fees of Sainik School by the centre many meritorious students from economically poor background were either not opting for admission to the school or not joining even after selection due to financial hardship. Therefore we had requested the state government to revise the scholarship scheme so that more people can send their students to Sainik School," said principal of Sainik School Bhubaneswar, S Dominic Rayan. Besides, mushrooming of a large number of English medium public schools is also a reason for not many students showing interest for admission in the Sainik School, he pointed out.
Source said a few years back the number of applications for admission was ranging between 5000 to 6000 while the number reduced to less than 1000 in 2018-19 and around 1100 in 2019-20. The school has an annual intake capacity of 100 in class VI.
As per the revised scholarship scheme parents of Odisha domicile general, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe categories students whose annual inclom is up to Rs 3 lakh would get financial assistance up to Rs 95,000 per annum from the state government and the ministry of defence. "Odisha government is the first state to implement this uniform scholarship scheme," Rayan added.
The school will create awareness about the school in different districts of the state from September 9 to attract more students to
The online registration process for the All India Sainik School Entrance Examination for 2010-21 session has already stated with September 23, 2019 as the last date. The examination will be held on January 5, 2020. The school has 100 vacancies in class VI and 12 vacancies in class IX. Boys born between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2010 are eligible for admission in class VI. The exam will be held at cities including Balasore, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Dhenkanal, Koraput, Rourkela and Sambalpur.
"Sainik School is different from any other public schools in terms of educational and infrastructural facilities, students here are also groomed to join Indian armed forces. Till now more than 700 ex-cadets have been inducted into three defence services and other walks of life," said the principal.