BOC rewards A/L high-flyers with Nana Jaya Scholarships

The country’s premier youth savings account ‘18 Plus Smartgen’ is rewarding students who have performed exceptionally well at their advance level examination for the 13th consecutive year.

Empowering Sri Lankan youth in pursuing their higher education dreams, the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) re-launched its scholarship programme for A/L high flyers as ‘BOC Nana Jaya Scholarships’ to support them financially with an endowment offered monthly.

The awards ceremony took take place at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) on Saturday, September 1, 2018, with the participation of 562 scholarship winners and their parents. On this day, the bank offered scholarships to deserving 18 Plus account holders who obtained highest marks in 2016 and 2017 A/L examination in the streams of science, mathematics, commerce, arts, engineering technology, bio-technology and common.

150 students who have received island ranks were awarded the merit scholarships worth Rs.48,000. The other 412 students were selected based on their district rank and each one of them were awarded a scholarship worth Rs.36,000. A total of Rs.32.5 million will be disbursed over 562 eligible students who have sat for A/L in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The scholarship amount will be credited monthly to respective 18 Plus Smartgen accounts.

This initiative has adapted a similar platform to that which the government has laid to encourage higher education through ‘Mahapola’ scholarship programme. So that students will be assisted by the bank to cover up their additional expenses up to four years, for merit scholarships and up to three years- for regular scholarships.

The Bank of Ceylon has been conducting this annual scholarship awards ceremony since year 2003 as a part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility initiatives towards empowering and motivating Sri Lankan youth to pursue higher education and reach their highest potential to achieve a sustainable development in the country.

So far BOC has granted 1,894 scholarships worth Rs.58.83 million. Selection criteria for this year’s scholarship were based on 2016 and 2017 Advance Level examination results. This scholarship is offered to 18 Plus account holders who have maintained Rs.5,000 as for 2016 students and Rs.10,000 as for the 2017 students, uninterruptedly in the account from January 1 to December 31, during the year they sat for the advanced level exam. Such students were considered eligible for the scholarship.