CHENNAI: Over 6,600 Class 8 students have cleared the National Means Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMS) examination held across Tamil Nadu in January.

Of the 6,695 students who cleared the examination, 659 students were from Tirunelveli. This was followed by Tenkasi and Kanniyakumari with 424 and 409 students clearing the exam, respectively. Toeing them were Thoothukudi (391), Salem (355), Erode and Madurai (each 342), and Coimbatore (285). As per the data released by the Directorate of Government Examination (DGE), 150 Class 8 students from Chennai cleared the NMMS examination.

The DGE data also listed the category-wise data on the number of students clearing the exam. From the general category, 2,075 cleared the exam, from BC 1,774, from BCM 234, from MBC 1,339, from SC 1,005, from SCA 201 and from ST 67.

Under the Ministry of Education, the NMMS exams are conducted by the DGE every year. The exams are conducted for class 8 students in government and aided schools from economically weaker backgrounds who have shown meritorious academic performances.

To ace the exam, Class 8 students have to be thorough in 29 lessons in mathematics, 37 lessons in science and 57 lessons in social science.

As per the modalities of the scheme, only those hailing from families with a total annual income of less than Rs 1.5 lakh are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The Class 8 students who clear the test would start receiving a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,000 from classes 9 to 12.