Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-02-27

Increasing of the 'Mahapola Scholarship' installment granted to students selected for the University entrance and expanding the number of such scholarship opportunities

- The 'Mahapola Scholarship' Programme has been initiated in the year 1982 with the objective of granting a monthly financial assistance to the students who gain entrance to universities from the low income families and those who obtain excellent results. The provisions required to the Universities to implement the programme is released monthly by the 'Mahapola Scholarship Trust Fund'. As at present, around 15,000 students are awarded with the Mahapola Scholarship grant out of the 30,000 students who gain admission to the Universities. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation, to implement several special programmes under strategic approaches identified, to increase the present capital of the Mahapola Scholarship Trust Fund which amounts to Rs.10.5 billion to Rs.20 billion by the year 2025, thus enabling to increase the number of Mahapola scholarship recipients up to 20,000, was approved by the Cabinet.