Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said enrolment in government schools from Classes I to VIII has increased over the last three years, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, on Tuesday, December 20. He also shared details of the various active government schemes related to education.

"From 2022-23, the Pre-Matric scholarship scheme is available only for students in Class IX and X. From the year 2021-22, it was decided to provide scholarships to students only from Class IX and X under the Pre-Matric Scholarship scheme for OBCs. Under the scheme of Pre-Matric scholarships to Scheduled Castes (SC) and others, the scholarship has been provided only to Class IX and X students since the launch of the scheme in 2012-13," Kumar said, as per a report by PTI.

He added that to encourage children from the above-mentioned communities to attend school, the government is providing "free education, free uniform, free meal etc", under different programmes such as the Samagrha Shiksha Abhiyan, PM Poshan and so on. Kumar also spoke about the Pre-Matric scholarship for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category students.

"Earlier, Economically Weaker Sections were not provided with Pre-Matric scholarships, but in the revised scheme they are also being considered for Pre-Matric scholarships for classes IX and X," he stated. The Minister added that under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the Government was committed to providing free and compulsory elementary education (Classes I to VIII) to each and every child, as per PTI.