Merit Based Award and Recognition Of High Performance In The Board Exams Of SSC And HSSC In The State Of Goa

What is the Merit Based Award and Recognition scheme in Goa?

Merit Based Award and Recognition of High Performance in the Board Exams of SSC and HSSC in the State of Goa is a scholarship-style incentive run by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Government of Goa, for Scheduled Tribe students who do well in the Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations.

The Directorate's stated reasoning is blunt: very few Scheduled Tribe students appear among the high-rank holders in the Goa Board's Class 10 and Class 12 results, and the scheme is designed both to reward those who get there and to motivate the students behind them. It works on two tracks at once. A merit award based on the marks obtained, and a felicitation of the top rank holders.

Key features

• Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 merit award, by marks slab, for scores of 50% and above.
• Rs 20,000 and a certificate of appreciation for the first five rank holders in each stream.
• Rank holders are recognised separately for Science, Commerce, Arts and Vocational streams.
• The merit award carries an income ceiling of Rs 5,00,000 a year; the felicitation is a rank-based recognition.
• Applications are made online on the Goa Scholarship Portal.

How much does the scheme pay?

Merit-based awards, by marks

Felicitation of rank holders

• Rs 20,000 to each of the first five rank holders, awarded separately for the Science, Commerce, Arts and Vocational streams.
• A certificate of appreciation presented at a public felicitation function organised by the Directorate.

Who is eligible for the merit based award?

You can apply if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Tribe in the State of Goa.
• You have secured 50% or above in the SSC (Class 10) or HSSC (Class 12) board examination.
• For the merit-based award, your family's annual income is less than Rs 5,00,000.
• You hold a caste certificate and an income certificate from the competent authority, and a bank account in your own name.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You do not belong to a Scheduled Tribe notified in Goa. This is a community-specific scheme with no general-category route.
• You scored below 50% in the board examination.
• Your family's annual income is Rs 5,00,000 or more, for the merit-based award component.
• You cannot produce a caste certificate from the competent authority, a school record alone is not accepted in place of it.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the merit based award

1. Visit the official Goa Scholarship Portal used by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare for its student schemes.
2. Register on the portal with your name, email ID, mobile number and the other details asked for.
3. Sign in using the credentials received on your registered email ID or mobile number.
4. Browse to the online application form for "Merit Based Award and Recognition of High Performance in the Board Exams of SSC and HSSC".
5. Fill in all mandatory fields and upload the documents in the file type and file size specified on each upload field. An oversized scan is the most common cause of a failed submission.
6. Click Submit. A pop-up displays the Application Reference ID, which is also sent to your registered email and mobile. Save it for follow-up.

If you cannot access the portal, contact the Directorate of Tribal Welfare in Panaji or the Deputy Director's office in Margao, which handle the scheme's sanction and felicitation arrangements.

How is the award sanctioned and paid?

Applications are scrutinised by the Directorate of Tribal Welfare, which sanctions the benefits. A monitoring committee constituted for the scheme oversees implementation and reviews performance, and the scheme's provisions can be modified where the review indicates a need.

The award is credited to the student's own bank account, which is why the passbook copy and the Aadhaar consent form are mandatory uploads. Rank holders are additionally invited to a public felicitation function, where the certificate of appreciation is presented.

Why applications get rejected

• Caste certificate not from the competent authority, or issued outside Goa.
• Income certificate above the Rs 5,00,000 ceiling for the merit award, or dated too far back.
• Marksheet upload illegible, so the marks slab cannot be established.
• Bank account not in the student's own name, or details mismatched with Aadhaar, which blocks the transfer.
• Aadhaar consent form not signed and uploaded along with the Aadhaar copy.
• Application submitted after the portal window closed for that result year.

When should I apply?

The scheme runs against each year's SSC and HSSC results, so the application window opens after the Goa Board declares results. The Directorate does not publish a single fixed calendar date that holds year to year — check the Goa Scholarship Portal and the Directorate's circulars page as soon as your result is out, and apply in the same academic year in which you passed.

Where to get help

• Directorate of Tribal Welfare, Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403 001.
• Phone: 0832-2438024. Fax: 0832-2438052.
• Email: dir-tw[dot]goa[at]nic[dot]in
• Office of the Deputy Director, Tribal Welfare, Margao, for South Goa students.
• Circulars and Feedback and Grievance sections on tribalwelfare.goa.gov.in.

There is no fee to apply for the merit based award, and no intermediary is involved between the student and the Directorate.

A note on scope

This is a narrowly targeted Tier 3 scheme. Its full published material covers the award slabs, the rank-holder felicitation, the eligibility test and the online application route, and this guide reflects exactly that. Students looking for broader support: hostel facilities, pre-matric and post-matric scholarships, Vidya Laxmi, or coaching support under Bhagwan Birsa Munda Lakshya Siddhi Yojana: should look at the Directorate's separate Application page, which carries the forms for each of those schemes.

How to check your application status

The Goa Scholarship Portal does not publish a separate public status-tracking page for this scheme, so most applicants follow up the way the Directorate itself recommends: quote the Application Reference ID you received at submission.

1. Keep the Application Reference ID ready. It was shown in the confirmation pop-up when you submitted the form, and was also sent to your registered email and mobile number. Every follow-up, online or offline, starts with this ID.
2. Sign back into the Goa Scholarship Portal with the same registered credentials you used to apply, and check the applicant dashboard for a status field against your application. If the portal shows the form as pending, under scrutiny, sanctioned, or returned for correction, act on that flag first before calling the Directorate.
3. If the portal shows no update for several weeks, call the Directorate of Tribal Welfare helpline on 0832-2438024 during office hours, and quote the Reference ID, your name, and the academic year of your SSC or HSSC result.
4. South Goa applicants can also follow up with the Office of the Deputy Director, Tribal Welfare, Margao, which handles scrutiny and felicitation arrangements for students in that district.
5. For a written follow-up, use the Feedback and Grievance section on tribalwelfare.goa.gov.in, or write to the Directorate at Shram Shakti Bhavan, 5th Floor, Patto, Panaji, Goa 403 001, referencing your Application Reference ID.
6. Once sanctioned, the award amount is transferred directly to the bank account you registered, so a credit in that account is the clearest confirmation that your application has cleared scrutiny. Rank holders additionally receive a separate intimation about the felicitation function where the certificate of appreciation is presented.

If your bank account details changed after you applied, for example a new passbook or a different account, inform the Directorate through the same helpline or the Margao office before the sanction stage, since a mismatch between the registered account and Aadhaar details is a common reason payment gets held up even after an application is otherwise approved.