Effectiveness of Ishan Uday Scholarship in case of Gross Enrolment Ratio and Academic Success in North-Eastern States of India

Abstract

Higher education is pivotal in equipping individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary for sustainable economic growth and development. Despite its significance, India faces persistent challenges in achieving an adequate Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), particularly in the North Eastern Region (NER). The GER in India, recorded at 27.1% (AISHE 2019-20), remains considerably lower than that of developed nations. To address this, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has set an ambitious target of increasing the GER to 50% by 2035, emphasizing inclusivity and equity in education. Among the initiatives undertaken, the Government of India introduced the “Ishan Uday” Special Scholarship Scheme in 2014-15, aimed at economically disadvantaged students in the NER. This scheme offers 10,000 annual scholarships to students pursuing general, technical, and professional courses, including medical and paramedical disciplines, with the objective of enhancing GER and promoting academic success. This study analyses the effectiveness of the Ishan Uday Scholarship in improving GER and its influence on academic success and excellence indicators from 2015-16 to 2020-21by considering 77 numbers of Ishan Uday Scholarship beneficiaries and 80 numbers of no-scholarship beneficiaries. Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR), Paired ‘t’ and One-way ANNOVA have been used to interpret the hypotheses. The findings aim to provide empirical insights into the role of targeted financial assistance in addressing regional disparities in higher education access and performance. The findings have proved that the Ishan Uday Scholarship have not been able to effect greatly in case of increasing GER as its objective and academic performance of the scholarship recipients. However, this scholarship scheme has positive effect upon students’ motivation towards higher education and academic excellence.