The Tertiary Scholarship and Loans Board has reaffirmed that there are 970 National Toppers Scheme Scholarships still available for the 2020 academic year.

This comprises of 20 scholarships for overseas studies and 950 scholarships for studies locally.

TSLB chief executive Bobby Maharaj says there is no merit in claims that the NTS Scholarship has been cancelled or students who have completed Year 13 or Foundation Studies last year are no longer being considered for the scholarships.

“As far as TSLB is concerned, as far as the budget allocation for 2019/2020 is concerned we have over $41m allocated in the budget and this $41m is sufficient to cater for the needs of the 970 new students, plus we already have 2, 075 students who are studying under National Toppers Scholarship and 14 for overseas studies. So in total we would be expecting close to 3, 000 this year – that is inclusive of existing and new students and all the privileges are still the same as it was last year.”

Maharaj says students who have successfully completed and attained the necessary marks/GPA in Year 13 or Equivalent Foundation Studies in 2019 in their first attempt are being considered for the2020 NTS awards so far.

“We have the funds, we have the applications with us and we have started processing and we will continue to process applications since 31st of January, 2020.”

The TSLB has so far processed 547 National Toppers Scholarships for this academic year.