Looking Back in Retrospect:

From 2006 when the scholarship program began, up until 2016, the scholarship process used the application forms which were in the Gujarati language, and were filled out by hand. The program process more or less worked as follows, for some ten years:

1. The application forms asked for very few supporting documents to be submitted with the applications. Not every student submitted all the required documents with the application.
2. “What” information the students should provide was printed on the form however; the need for the information to be complete, accurate or precise was neither understood, nor exercised or enforced. Hence, most of the applications received were incomplete, partially complete, and the essential details were missing. Some did, whereas the most did not submit what can be considered as “Ideal” or “thorough” application forms to enable the determination of the eligibility and qualifiability. The students used their own interpretation, with perhaps no questions asked or no clarification sought.
3. No rules and regulations, instructions and guidance, criteria and rationale were established, announced, published, printed or provided to students as to the basis upon which the scholarships would be or would not be awarded, nor any notification of the reason, in writing, was provided as to why scholarship was not awarded.
4. The applications were reviewed by only one individual, throughout, single-handedly, using self-judgment, with no verification, validation, or approval by another person. This process resulted in questionable decisions regarding the recipients and the amount of scholarship awarded as no one else was involved in the process, until after when finally, the scholarships were awarded.

This process and practice were evidently indicative of the lack of complete discipline, lack of scrutiny and lack of supervision, and an autonomous operation, the basic fundamental programmatic deficiency.

The dawn of Digitalization:

The online scholarship program adopted in 2016 by the Vishwakarma Educational Trust aims to change the prevailing culture of the Trust, of the Trustees, the students, their parents, and its entire operation. It aims to raise the quality, standard, efficiency and prestige of the Trust, and its scholarship program and to enhance the program by instilling an element of value, and widening its service area, increasing the scholarship amount and the number of students it can provide scholarships to, and encouraging higher education and empowering the female students, in particular. It also envisions to design and implement new scholarship programs in the years ahead.

The online scholarship Program which has been adopted has tried to resolve most of the above issues in a modern technologically advanced programmatic way. This program:

1. Is very scientific because it is very logical, at every step of the way.
2. Is digitalized because the applications are made online using the advanced technology.
3. Is programmatic because it receives, stores, processes and presents the students’ application data digitally using various sophisticated computer program languages in a systematic and a structured way, and registers the application data live, meaning, simultaneously as the applications are being completed online.
4. Eliminates omissions or skipping the information required in the application form by not allowing jumping to the next field.
5. Reduces the data entry by students to a minimum by providing a pull-down menu of the relevant information which the students only have to choose, click, and apply to the application form. This eliminates spelling and grammar mistakes. Consistency is maintained by programmatically maintaining only the first alphabet in upper case and the rest in lower case for each sentence, which students may have to type-in.
6. Assures that all supporting documents are submitted (uploaded) compulsorily because without doing so, the program will not allow proceeding further.
7. Does not allow the applications to be submitted electronically, if the forms are not completely filled out, all the required documents are not submitted, and the dates and the digital signatures are not affixed properly.
8. Removes any possibility of personal preferential and prejudicial judgment in selecting and evaluating the recipients and determining the scholarship amount because:
   1. The program is open to all students, and all applications received are stored in the program server database, regardless the application is approved or disapproved,
   2. The reviewer documents the review by using a Checklist for adequacy of documents submitted and the agreement of the information provided in the application form against the documents submitted,
   3. The program calculates and assigns the scholarship amounts based on pre-determined percentage of the fees paid for different types of courses evenly to all students for the various streams of studies,
   4. Distributes the funded amount evenly to all applicants, via the bank through intra-account electronic transfer arrangement within the same bank,
   5. Sends email notification to students acknowledging the receipt of their scholarship applications, when they are under review, when the scholarships are approved, including the amount approved, and when the scholarships are disapproved with the reasons why they are disapproved.
   6. The process goes through a review and an approval cycle by two different individuals.

It’s a thoroughly transparent, accountable, auditable, paperless, responsive, and completely programmatic operation. It is in its evolving stage, with a potential to expand its horizon to still better quality, performance, and value.