Lore India Foundation Scholarship Trust announced the launch of a pioneering scholarship program that will identify, assess, reward and mentor the brightest young minds in India. The program is open to school students from classes X, XI and XII from across India and is the nation's largest scholarship program and national benchmarking initiative. More than 100 of the most brilliant students will be identified through a scientifically evolved Learning Aptitude Test (LAT), designed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with the help of acclaimed education scientists.
LAT is devised to test a child's aptitude or innate brain power as opposed to their academic learning. The National Scholarship Program is guided by TCS and a stellar body of academic stalwarts that constitute Lore India Foundation's Governing Council, including both current and retired professors from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian School of Business (ISB), Medical Council of India and University Grants Commission (UGC), among others.
Administered in English and Hindi, the LAT will assess the candidate's aptitude and not the extent of knowledge in subjects. The emphasis will be on analytical and logical reasoning, reading comprehension and puzzles. The key differentiator between this and other scholarships is that, here, the quality of education a student has received so far does not become an overriding factor in identifying the brightest candidate. LAT, in fact, is designed to provide a level playing field for students to compete irrespective of their socio-economic status, geography or educational background. The focus in on the child's merit and merit alone.
Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain (Padma Shri), Professor, IIT-Delhi says, "In the context of the current education system, we believe that the scholarships will bring in immense parity amongst students from across different states and Boards. Currently, there is a very clear disconnect between the marks scored in the State Boards that account for 95 percent of students vs. the Central Boards that account for the balance 5 percent only."
Speaking about the philosophy behind the LAT system Mr. Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Director Tata Consultancy Services, Global Head TCS Ion says "Our focus is to deliver an assessment that can give a level-playing field to all students irrespective of their social, economic backgrounds, gender, exposure to rural or urban schools and their current academic levels in subject domains. We use a powerful set of tools and technologies that ensures an accurate assessment of the students' academic aptitude."
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