Financial Assistance for Education (GBOCWWB)

What is GBOCWWB Financial Assistance for Education?

Financial Assistance for Education is a scholarship scheme of the Goa Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (GBOCWWB), constituted under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996 and administered by the Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, Government of Goa. The Board has been implementing the Act in Goa since 1 April 2008.

The scheme exists to break a cycle. A construction worker's child who leaves education for want of fees usually enters the same casual trade as the parent. A scholarship at the point where fees become the obstacle. A diploma, a degree, a professional course: is what changes the outcome.

The scheme text is short and deliberately open-ended: children of the members shall be eligible for such financial assistance as may be determined by the Board for such courses of study as may be specified by the Board from time to time. An application in Form No. XLIII shall be submitted with such documents and within such time as may be specified by the Board.

How much does the scheme pay?

The scheme does not fix an amount, and this page will not invent one. Both the quantum and the list of eligible courses are determined by the Board and revised from time to time.

That is not evasion; it is how the scheme is written, and it has a practical consequence for a family. Before you plan around this scholarship, ask the Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment for the current rates and the current list of specified courses. The Board's rates for a Class XI student and for an engineering or medical student are unlikely to be the same, and the courses list determines whether a particular diploma qualifies at all.

Financial Assistance for Education is listed as Scheme No. 8 among the Board's twelve welfare schemes, alongside maternity benefit, family pension, advance for purchase or construction of house, disability pension, funeral benefit, death benefit, grant for the purchase of tools, financial assistance for marriage, medical assistance, pension benefit, and interim relief to beneficiaries affected by disaster.

Who is eligible for the education assistance?

Your child can be considered if:

• You are a worker registered as a beneficiary with the Goa Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.
• Your subscription record with the Board can be produced. The date of the first subscription, the date of the last subscription, the number of instalments and the total subscription paid.
• The child is studying a course of study specified by the Board.
• The child has passed a qualifying examination, whose marks the application requires.
• The head of the institution will certify the child's enrolment for the academic year.

Your child is not eligible if:

• You are not registered with the Board. This is a members' fund, and registration is the gateway to all twelve schemes.
• Your subscription is not paid up and the membership cannot be shown to be live or revived. Form No. XLIII asks about both.
• The course is not one specified by the Board for the purposes of the scheme.
• The institution will not certify the enrolment and confirm that it has examined the application.
• The parent will not swear the affidavit, which includes an undertaking to refund the scholarship if the facts are found wrong.
• The application is filed outside the time specified by the Board for that academic year.

The Board's general registration criteria cover construction workers in the age group of 18 to 60 years and their families.

What does Form No. XLIII ask for?

Form No. XLIII, prescribed under rule 286 and titled Application for Education Scholarship, requires:

About the student

1. Name of the student.
2. Male or female, and whether SC or ST, with proof attached where claimed.
3. Name of the college and the affiliated University or Board.
4. Name and duration of the course.
5. Date of admission to the course.
6. Age and date of birth of the student.
7. Details of the qualifying examination passed; name of exam, affiliated University, Board or State, and the month and year of passing.
8. Marks scored in the qualifying examination, subject by subject, with the maximum marks, the percentage and the total.

About the parent

9. Name of the parent of the applicant, their registration number, the date of payment of the first subscription, the date of payment of the last subscription, the number of instalments and total subscription paid, the permanent address, and whether the membership has been revived and if so the period of revival.

The student signs a declaration that the facts are true and promises to abide by the conditions stipulated in the scheme if selected for the scholarship.

The parent's affidavit and the institution's certificate

Two attachments are integral to the form rather than optional extras.

Affidavit of the parent of the student. The parent affirms that the son or daughter is studying the named course; that the parent has been a member of the Board since a stated year with a stated registration number; that subscription has been paid up to a stated date; that if any of the above facts are found to be wrong later, the scholarship amount granted to the student will be remitted back by the parent, that the decision of the Secretary in that regard will be applicable and final, and that the parent agrees to it; and that the parent agrees to recover any amount of default due. The affidavit must be signed before an MLA, MP, Panchayat President or a Gazetted Officer of the State or Central Government.

Certificate of the head of the institution. The head of the institution certifies that the named student is studying there for the stated academic year, that he has examined the application submitted by the student and is convinced that it is correct, and names the University or Board to which the institution is affiliated. The certificate carries the office seal and the signature, name and designation of the Principal or head.

How to apply for GBOCWWB education assistance

1. Confirm the current rates, the specified courses and the deadline with the Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, since all three are set by the Board from time to time.
2. Retrieve the parent's Board record — registration number, date of registration, dates and amounts of the first and last subscription, number of instalments, and any period of revival of membership.
3. Obtain Form No. XLIII from the Labour Commissioner's office and complete all the student and parent particulars, including the subject-wise marks of the qualifying examination.
4. Get the institution's certificate signed and sealed by the Principal or head of the institution for the current academic year.
5. Swear the parent's affidavit before an MLA, MP, Panchayat President or a Gazetted Officer, including the undertaking to refund if the facts are found wrong.
6. Attach the supporting documents; marksheets of the qualifying examination, proof of the student's date of birth, and the SC or ST certificate where that category is claimed.
7. Submit the application at the Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, 2nd Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Plaza, Panaji, Goa, and take an acknowledgement.

How is the scholarship decided and paid?

The Board determines both the amount and the eligible courses, so the sanction is a Board decision rather than an automatic entitlement on a formula. The Secretary of the Board is the authority named in the parent's affidavit whose decision on recovery is final, which indicates where the administrative authority for the scheme sits.

There is no published online status tracker for the Board's schemes. Status is followed up at the Labour Commissioner's office on 0832-2437081, 0832-2437082 or 0832-2437083, against the acknowledgement issued at submission.

Why do education assistance applications fail?

• Parent not registered with the Board, or registration lapsed and not revived.
• Subscription record incomplete, the form asks for the first and last subscription dates, the number of instalments and the total paid, and a gap here stalls the file.
• Course not on the Board's specified list for the year.
• Institution's certificate missing, unsigned, or not carrying the office seal.
• Affidavit not sworn before an eligible authority, a notarised affidavit is not what the form asks for; it names an MLA, MP, Panchayat President or a Gazetted Officer.
• Qualifying examination marks not filled in subject by subject with maximums and percentage.
• SC or ST claimed without proof attached.
• Application filed after the Board's cut-off for the academic year.

Where do I complain?

The Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, Goa, 2nd Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Plaza, Panaji, administers the Board's schemes. It can be reached on 0832-2437081, 0832-2437082 and 0832-2437083, and by email at com-labo.goa@nic.in.

The Board's citizen charter and the Government of Goa's public grievance registration route at goaonline.gov.in are the escalation paths.

Practical points

• Keep the Board membership alive. Every one of the Board's twelve schemes turns on live membership and a clean subscription record. A parent who lets subscriptions lapse during a child's school years discovers the cost at exactly the wrong moment.
• Disclose a revived membership. The form has a box for it. A disclosed revival is contemplated by the scheme; a concealed lapse is a ground for the Secretary to order recovery later.
• Book the affidavit early. Getting an MLA, MP, Panchayat President or Gazetted Officer to attest takes scheduling, and it cannot be done at the last minute before a deadline.
• Ask the Principal to certify well before the cut-off. The certificate is not a formality. The head of the institution is certifying that they have examined the application and are convinced it is correct.
• Ask about the Board's other schemes at the same time, particularly medical assistance and financial assistance for marriage, which serve the same families and use the same membership record.

How to check your application status

The Board runs no online tracker for Form No. XLIII, so status has to be chased by phone or in person, not looked up on a portal.

• Call the Labour Commissioner's office on 0832-2437081, 0832-2437082 or 0832-2437083 and quote the acknowledgement number or date given at submission, along with the parent's Board registration number, since files are tracked against the member, not the student.
• Ask specifically what stage the file is at: whether it is still being checked for a complete subscription record, whether it has gone to the Secretary for sanction, or whether it has been sanctioned and is queued for payment. The scheme leaves both the amount and the sanction to the Board's decision, so "pending" can mean different things at different points.
• Keep the acknowledgement slip and a photocopy of the completed Form No. XLIII so any discrepancy the office raises (a missing marksheet page, an affidavit not attested by an eligible authority) can be resolved on the same call rather than needing a fresh office visit.
• Follow up close to the start of the next term if there has been no word for several weeks, since scholarship files move with the Board's periodic sittings rather than on a fixed processing timeline.
• Visit in person at the Office of the Commissioner, Labour and Employment, 2nd Floor, Shram Shakti Bhavan, Patto Plaza, Panaji, if phone follow-up does not get a clear answer; carrying the original acknowledgement speeds this up.
• If the case has been pending well beyond a normal term and phone follow-up has failed, raise it as a grievance through the Government of Goa's goaonline.gov.in grievance route rather than only repeating the same phone call.