Filled › Scholarships › National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) 2026-27 — for test-qualified students

ScholarshipLast date to apply 31 Aug 2026

National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) 2026-27 — for test-qualified students

Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education

Important dates

Posts & who can apply

Category relaxations and post-specific rules are checked automatically against your profile when you use Filled.

More information

⚠️ Read this first — there are two stages, and this is the second

• NMMS is not won by applying on the National Scholarship Portal. It is won by passing a selection test that your own State or UT conducts for class VIII students.
• The portal window on this page — 1 June to 31 August 2026 — is where a student who has ALREADY cleared that test claims the money, and where an existing awardee renews. Missing it costs you ₹12,000 a year for up to four years.
• ⚠️ If you are in class VIII and have not sat the test, applying here will not get you the scholarship. What you need is your State or UT's own NMMS examination notification, which is issued separately and on its own dates. We do not carry those yet.
• The test is at class VIII stage and has two papers: a Mental Ability Test (MAT) and a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).

What you get

• ₹12,000 per year, paid as ₹1,000 per month, by DBT into your own bank account.
• It runs from class IX and can continue up to class XII — a maximum of four years.
• You will need a bank account in your own name, preferably with SBI or another public sector or scheduled bank with core banking. SBI is the scheme's implementing bank.

Who can apply

• Parental income from all sources must not be more than ₹3,50,000 per year at the time of selection.
• You must be a regular student entering class IX in a Government, Government-aided or local body school.
• ⚠️ Students of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are NOT eligible.
• ⚠️ Students in residential schools run by Central or State Government institutions where boarding, lodging and education are all provided are NOT eligible, and neither are students in private schools.
• Each State and UT has its own fixed quota of scholarships, and its own reservation norms for different categories.

The marks you need

• In the selection test you must pass both MAT and SAT with at least 40% in aggregate across the two papers taken together. For SC and ST students the cut-off is 32%.
• At the time of selection you must also have scored at least 55% or the equivalent grade in your class VIII examination, with a 5% relaxation for SC and ST students.
• To keep the scholarship you need at least 60% in class X, relaxable by 5% for SC and ST — and clear promotion from class IX to X and from class XI to XII in the first attempt.

How to apply

1. Apply online on the National Scholarship Portal (NSP) at https://scholarships.gov.in/ — it is the only route. Applications sent directly to the ministry or the institute are not accepted.
2. One Time Registration (OTR) comes first. You register once at https://scholarships.gov.in/otrapplication/ with Aadhaar-based e-KYC and get an OTR number, then use it for this and every other NSP scholarship, this year and in later years.
3. There is no application fee.
4. After you submit, your institute verifies the application, and then the district/state/ministry nodal officer verifies it. Both happen after the student deadline and neither is something you can do for them — submit early enough that they have time.
5. Your application is verified by the State Government or UT Administration and then sent to the Ministry for sanction of funds. Only the final list verified at every level is funded.

The deadlines that follow yours

• Your deadline is the first of four. The three after it belong to your institute and to the verifying officers, and the schedule is published by NSP.
• ⚠️ An application your institute never verifies is not an application. Submit early and then confirm with your institute that they have verified it.

Official documents & links

• Scheme guidelines (PDF, scholarships.gov.in) — Official notification · Official — scholarships.gov.in

These are the documents this page was written from. Where the government portal published a PDF, the copy above is the one we read — open it and check anything that matters to you.

See notification ↗ — Applications are submitted here, on the government's own site.

Frequently asked

What is the last date to apply for National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) 2026-27 — for test-qualified students?

31 Aug 2026.

How do I apply for National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship (NMMS) 2026-27 — for test-qualified students quickly?

Check your eligibility on Filled in about thirty seconds; if eligible, Filled fills the official form from your saved profile — you review it and submit on the official portal yourself.

Last checked 5 Aug 2026

More live notifications

• Top Class Education Scholarship for Students with Disabilities 2026-27 — apply by 31 Oct 2026
• Post-Matric Scholarship for Students with Disabilities 2026-27 — apply by 31 Oct 2026
• Pre-Matric Scholarship for Students with Disabilities 2026-27 — apply by 31 Aug 2026
• PM-USP CSSS Scholarship for College and University Students 2026-27

All scholarships →