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PCT offers educational scholarships for deserving
students pursuing the following courses:
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Intermediate (2 years)
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Diploma in Engineering (Polytechnic) (3 years)
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Diploma in Education / Pharmacy (2 years)
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Undergraduate Non-Professional Courses (3 years)
(B.A, B.Sc, B.Com)
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Undergraduate Professional Courses (4 years)
(B.E, B.Tech)
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B.Ed Course (1 year)
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Postgraduate Non-professional Courses (2 years)
(MA. M.Sc, M.Com)
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Medicine (MBBS) (5 years)
1. Norms
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All
past education should be in a government or fully aided
school/college
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Present education/course should also be in a government
or fully aided college/institution
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The
minimum % of marks the applicant should maintain
throughout is
75%. However, there will be a relaxation in the % criteria for
physically handicapped and girls from rural villages
for obvious reasons
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In
case of courses with entrance test (Polytechnic, Engg,
Medicine, B.Ed etc), the rank secured should be good
enough to get the admission through a “free seat”
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No
other scholarship with significant amount should be
availed by the student
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In
case of Designated Scholarships (For ex: Some people
may sponsor scholarship to students from a specific
school or village or to a particular student), the
Norms may be deviated a little bit depending on the
donor’s specifications.
2. Application
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There
are separate Application forms for Fresh and Renewal
scholarships. These can be obtained from PCT office or
can be downloaded/printed from PCT’s web site at
www.padalacharitabletrust.org
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Applications for Fresh scholarships must be submitted
by 31st May each year
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Applications for Renewal scholarships must be
submitted during the annual interviews usually held in
June each year
3. Documents required
to be submitted along with the Fresh Application Form
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Xerox
copy of Income Certificate from MRO
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Xerox
copies of Marks Lists from X class onwards
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Xerox
copy of Rank Card /Score Card (in case of entrance
exams line CEEP, EAMCET, ECET etc)
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Two
Passport size photo (colour or black & white)
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Any
other merit certificates showing the academic
excellence of the applicant
4. Screening & Short
listing of Applications
All
applications received are screened and short-listed as
per the Norms AND financial status of the applicant’s
family. The applications from private
school/college students will not be considered at
all. Each short listed applicant is informed through a
call letter to attend a personal interview along with
his/her parent/guardian.
5. Personal Interview
by PCT panel
The
interview panel consists of at least 3 panel members
and 1 consolidator. The panel usually consists of PCT
secretary, retired teachers/HMs/Principals and other
elders. The panel tries to get an idea of a) the
applicant’s academic history b) his/her desire for higher
studies c) the parents’ income sources and their ability
to support the applicant’s educational costs.
Based on the conversation, each panel member gives a
grade for each applicant. So, each applicant will have at
least three grades one from each panel member. The
possible values of grade are: A – Accept, R –
Reject, N – Not Sure.
A –
Accept: This applicant is genuine and eligible for
PCT scholarship
R –
Reject: This applicant is not eligible for PCT
scholarship
N –
Not
Sure: The panel member is not sure if the applicant
is genuine or not. More information needs to be gathered
before moving the grade to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’.
Consolidator’s role
On
the other hand, the consolidator’s role is to note down
all key points of the conversation in the spreadsheet
he/she has. Once all applicants are interviewed, the
consolidator takes the grades from all panel members and
puts them in the same spreadsheet. At the end of this
process, the consolidator comes up with a ‘Grading
Sheet’ with all important information and grading
details in it.
Note
on Renewal Applicants
Since
the renewal of PCT scholarship is NOT automatic each
year, there are few things that the panel members verify
before granting the renewal.
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Verify if the scholar maintains consistent performance
in his/her academics. Reject the scholarship if the
performance is not up to the mark.
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Find out if there have been any new income-sources for
the family. If so, investigate the details and see if
the scholarship can be completely stopped OR at least
reduced.
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Get
(and file) all the receipts from school/college if the
applicant used our scholarship for tuition fee/college
fee. Unless there is proof that the scholarship amount
was used for the purpose that was issued for, the
renewal will not be processed.
5. Review of Grading
Sheet
The
‘Grading Sheet’ prepared by the consolidator with all
applicants’ data is reviewed thoroughly by PCT-Managing
Committee. The applicants with 2 or more ‘Reject’ grades
are eliminated from the list and all others are kept as
the preliminary list of finalists. The applicants
with ‘N’ (Not Sure) grades are given an emphasis in the
next process (EVR) to gather more information so that the
grade can be converted to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’.
EVR
(Eligibility Verification Report) process is initiated
for each applicant with ‘Not Sure’ status in the
preliminary list of finalists.
6. EVR (Eligibility
Verification Report) – What, Why and How?
See a sample EVR
document
What
PCT
is very sensitive to the genuineness of each applicant we
sponsor and we make all efforts to see that we reach the
poorest of the poor with best merit. We do not consider
the Income Certificate from MRO as a complete evidence of
economic backwardness of the family. The purpose of EVR
is to make sure we pick up the most deserved applicants
in the selection process. EVR is prepared for each
applicant who could not be judged by the panel during the
face to face interview process.
Why
In
some cases, the determination of the eligibility of
applicant is simple and straightforward (for example, the
parent is a daily coolie, rickshaw puller, blacksmith,
lorry driver, physically handicapped/mentally retarded
etc.). However, in several other cases the decision is
not that simple and we need to make sure we judge the
applicant’s need correctly. For example, if the parent is
a kirana shop owner, we do not know how big or how small
is his shop. Also, if the parent is a farmer, he may not
reveal the details like how much land he owns etc.
This
is when EVR helps us. EVR is a form that needs to be
filled out by the PCT member/volunteer for each
short-listed applicant. The only goal here is to
verify the accuracy of information provided in the
application and the details shared during the interview
process so that a decision can be taken whether to grant
the scholarship or not.
How
The
PCT member/volunteer filling out this form needs to go
through the initial application submitted by the
applicant as well the information provided in the
‘Grading Sheet’ during the interview process. The next
step is to contact head of the institution
(school/college) where the applicant is admitted into or
finished the course (whichever is applicable). The
following details need to be verified:
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Whether the applicant’s conduct and behaviour are
satisfactory
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Whether the applicant maintains good attendance in the
class
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What is the applicant’s family’s financial status (as
far as they know)
Finally, the applicant’s village/town is visited where
his/her parents are living to find out the details
regarding:
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What kind of house they are living in
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Whether they have any family members who are employed
and earning
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Whether they possess any considerable assets like
lands, houses etc.
Once
these details are verified, a final grade is entered in
the EVR for each applicant.
(A –
Accept, R – Reject, N – Not Sure)
A –
Accept: This applicant is qualified for PCT
scholarship
R –
Reject: This applicant is NOT qualified for PCT
scholarship
N –
Not
Sure: Enough information could not be gathered to
reach a decision on this applicant.
7. Selection of
Finalists and Distribution of Scholarship
After
reviewing the grades from Grading Sheet & EVR for all
applicants, a list of finalists is prepared by
PCT-Managing Committee indicating the amount of
scholarship for each applicant.
All
finalists will be informed to attend the Scholars’ Meet
at PCT’s head office location (Yeleswaram) where the
scholarship amounts will be distributed to each of them.
All
information about the finalized applicants and pictures
of the distribution function will be published on the
PCT’s web site (http://www.padalacharitabletrust.org)
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