Education Encouragement for Excellence (EEE) Scholarship for Classes 9 to 12

What is the Education Encouragement for Excellence (EEE) scholarship?

Education Encouragement for Excellence, universally shortened to EEE, is a merit scholarship run by the Directorate of School Education under the Haryana School Education Department. The scheme was introduced in the academic year 2005-06 under the name Shri Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship for excellence in education, and Haryana government paperwork still uses the two names interchangeably. Readers who know it as the Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship and readers who know it as EEE are looking at the same scheme.

Education Encouragement for Excellence exists to do one narrow thing well: put a cash reward in the hands of the single best-performing boy and the single best-performing girl in every class of every government school, every year. The department's stated aim is to encourage brilliant students and to build a spirit of competition among students in state schools. It is not a poverty scheme and not a caste-category scheme. It is decided purely on the preceding year's examination result.

The scheme runs in two halves. The middle-school half covers classes 6 to 8. The half described on this page covers classes 9 to 12, that is all High Schools and Senior Secondary Schools run by the Haryana government. The Directorate of School Education's list of state scholarship schemes notified in August 2021 lists it as item (vi), "Scholarships (Secondary) Education Encourgement of Excellence (EEE) Rajiv Gandhi Scholarship Scheme for Classes IX-XII", confirming that the scheme is still running for the secondary stage. The Haryana State DBT Portal also carries it under the Secondary Education department as "EDUCATION ENCOURAGEMENT FOR EXCELLENCE HIGH/SENIOR SCHOOLS EEE STUDYING IN CLASSES 9TH TO 12TH".

Main features

• State-funded scheme; the recurring expenditure comes from the Consolidated Fund of Haryana.
• Awarded on the preceding class's result, not on the current year's marks.
• Two awards per class; one boy, one girl — in every government High and Senior Secondary School, so small schools and large schools each get their own set of winners.
• Paid through DBT/PFMS into an Aadhaar-linked bank account.
• Administered through the Principal or Head Master of the school; there is no citizen-facing application portal.

Who is eligible for the EEE scholarship in classes 9 to 12?

A student qualifies if all of the following are true:

• The student is on the rolls of a Haryana government High School or Senior Secondary School.
• The student is studying in class 9, 10, 11 or 12.
• The student stood first in the preceding class in that school.
• The student secured a First Division in the preceding class. Standing first is not enough on its own; the department's scheme document is explicit that only students who obtained a First Division qualify.
• The student is either the top-ranked boy or the top-ranked girl. Boys and girls are ranked separately, so each class produces two awardees.
• The student has an Aadhaar number and a bank account that can receive a DBT credit.

Students who cannot apply or are not eligible:

• Students of private, unaided or privately managed CBSE schools. The scheme covers government schools only.
• Students who secured a First Division but did not stand first in their class in the preceding year.
• Students who stood first but fell below First Division.
• Students of classes 1 to 5. The scheme's lower tier starts at class 6, and the Rs 1,000 rate described here begins at class 9.
• Students who are third or lower in the boys' or girls' order of merit, even in a very large class. The scheme awards one boy and one girl per class, not a percentage of the class.

There is no income ceiling, no caste condition and no domicile test beyond being enrolled in a Haryana government school. That makes EEE unusual among Haryana school scholarships, most of which are keyed to SC, BC-A or BPL status.

How much does the EEE scholarship pay?

According to the Directorate of School Education's published scheme document, the rate for High and Senior Secondary school students is Rs 1,000 per student per annum. Students in classes 6 to 8 receive Rs 750 per student per annum under the middle-school version of the same scheme. The department has not published a revised rate on its website since, so a student or parent should confirm the current year's figure with the school office rather than assume an increase.

The award is an annual amount, not a monthly stipend. Because each government High or Senior Secondary School awards two scholarships in each of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12, a single school distributes eight EEE awards at the secondary stage in a normal year.

What documents are required for the EEE scholarship?

Most of these are already with the school. The two things a family genuinely has to get right are the Aadhaar number and the bank account details, because those are what the payment system uses.

How to apply for the EEE scholarship

Education Encouragement for Excellence has no public application form and no citizen login. The scheme is administered through the school, and the steps below describe the real route by which a student's name reaches the payment list.

1. Make sure your result is recorded correctly. After the annual examination, check with the class teacher that your position and division in the preceding class are entered accurately in the school's records. Everything downstream depends on this entry.
2. Submit your Aadhaar number to the school office. The School Education Department has notified the scheme under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act 2016, so a student without an Aadhaar number must first enrol at an Aadhaar enrolment centre listed on uidai.gov.in.
3. Give the school an Aadhaar-seeded bank account. Hand over a photocopy of the passbook page showing the account holder's name, account number and IFSC code. Ask the bank to confirm that the account is Aadhaar-seeded, because DBT credits fail silently when it is not.
4. Let the Principal or Head Master forward the list. The school head compiles the topper boy and topper girl for each of classes 9 to 12 and sends the list up through the District Education Officer to the Directorate of School Education.
5. Collect your acknowledgement. Ask the school office to confirm in writing, or at least in the school register, that your name was included and on what date it was sent. This is the single most useful thing to have if the money does not arrive.
6. Track the credit in your bank passbook. Update the passbook or check the bank's SMS alerts after the school tells you the list has been processed.

There is no fee at any stage, and no agent, tout or private "scholarship consultant" can add a name to the list.

How does the money actually reach the student?

Haryana pays its school scholarships through a two-stage bank route that is worth understanding, because it explains most delays.

Funds move first from the state to a designated school bank account. Every Haryana government school has been attached to a nearby bank branch for exactly this purpose. That school account is deliberately restricted: money in it can only be transferred onward to student accounts, and no one can withdraw cash from it. From the school account the amount is transferred to the individual student's bank account on the school head's advice to the branch.

Since the Section-7 notifications, this flow runs through DBT/PFMS with Aadhaar linking. That means a mismatch between the name on the bank account and the name on Aadhaar, or an account that was never seeded with Aadhaar, will hold up the payment even when the school has done everything right.

How to check your EEE scholarship status

1. Ask the school office first. The Principal or Head Master holds the forwarded list and the date it went out. This answers most queries in one visit.
2. Update your bank passbook or check your bank's mobile app for a credit described as a scholarship or DBT transfer.
3. Confirm Aadhaar seeding with your bank branch if the school says the list was sent but nothing has been credited.
4. Escalate to the District Education Officer with the school's written confirmation if the school and the bank both say the problem lies elsewhere.

Why EEE scholarship payments get stopped or rejected

• Not actually first in the class. The commonest reason. A very high percentage is not the test; standing first in the preceding class is.
• Division below First Division, which disqualifies the student even if they topped the class.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT credit bounces back.
• Name mismatch between the school record, the Aadhaar record and the bank account.
• Wrong or closed account number submitted to the school. A dormant account opened years earlier for another scheme is a frequent culprit.
• Student transferred to a private school during the year, which takes them outside the scheme's coverage.
• Aadhaar not enrolled at all, which now blocks the payment outright.

Every one of these is fixable except the first two. Take a corrected passbook copy and a self-attested Aadhaar copy to the school office, ask for the details to be re-submitted, and note the date.

Key dates and how the scheme fits the school year

Education Encouragement for Excellence follows the school academic session rather than a fixed application window. Positions are settled when the previous session's annual results are declared, lists are compiled after the new session opens, and payment follows once the department releases funds to school accounts. Because the department has not published a hard last date, the practical deadline is whatever date your school sets for submitting Aadhaar and bank details, which is why the school office, not a website, is the place to ask.

Where to raise a grievance about the EEE scholarship

• First level: the Principal or Head Master of your government school.
• Second level: the District Education Officer (DEO) of your district.
• Department level: Directorate of School Education, Shiksha Sadan, Sector 5, Panchkula 134109. Telephone 0172-2560246, email edusecondaryhry@gmail.com.
• State level: the Haryana CM Window grievance system, for complaints that have gone unanswered at district level.

Keep the school's written acknowledgement, a copy of the marksheet showing your position and division, and the bank passbook page. Those three papers resolve almost every EEE dispute.