Scholarship Programme

The Trust follows a transparent process to select students for scholarships, based on pre-established criteria to measure merit and need (poverty).

The annual selection of students is made from the applications forwarded by the 15-18 higher secondary (10+2) schools in Ernakulam and Idukki districts. These schools, which are preferably government schools, are pre-selected by the Trust. The Trust works with these schools on a regular basis, and they nominate two students each based on merit/poverty criteria established by the Trust. This forms the initial list of candidates for further screening. The screening and ranking of these applicants are based on the following criteria, for which data is collected through a questionnaire filled in by students/candidates. The data provided are ascertained by the Trustees through local enquiry and field verification of the applicants.

Overall 50% focus is given to academic performance (merit) and 50% for financial backwardness (poverty). Thus, out of total 100 marks, 50 is for merit, and 50 for financial backwardness.

For merit (total 50 marks), the following further weightage are given: 20% for SSLC marks, 5% for 11th standard marks, 20% for 12th standard marks, and 5% for extracurricular activities (such as awards obtained at a district level and above competitions)

Under economic criteria (total 50), the following weightages are established to truly assess the living condition and lack of resources of the applicant’s family, more marks going to the poorer families : 10% for physical and health condition of parents, 10% for economic condition of the parents; 8% for condition of the applicant's house, 5% for drinking water availability and 5% for remoteness of the house; 5% weightage provided if there are other school-going students from the same family indicating more funding needs; and 7% weightage based on general assessment of need made by Trust members after visiting the family.

A sample ranking list for a recent year can be seen by clicking here.

The above rigorous socio-economic evaluation helps to find truly meritorious and yet financially poor students who could otherwise not have gone for higher studies. Feedback received from scholarship recipients who have completed studies confirms that even this modest amount provided by the scholarships has been a great help for their studies.