Benefits of merit scholarships offered in schools for your child

Rupali Karekar
Mar 8, 2024
GIIS Scholarships

Schools offer student scholarships, both merit and means, to recognise and encourage excellence in academics, sports and other areas, and to empower others to thrive without financial constraints. Every child deserves a chance to get access to quality education, abundant learning resources, and benefit from trained and qualified educators. Moreover, every student should have the opportunity to apply and enroll for higher education. 

Scholarships in Singapore international schools are typically partial coverage of tuition fees. However, the benefits of scholarships go beyond monetary advantages. Among various benefits of scholarship at school – recognition, motivation and confidence – help students perform better consistently. Let’s understand what a merit-based scholarship is and the advantages of earning one at school.

What is a Merit-based Scholarship?

A merit scholarship is awarded to students based on their excellence in different areas such as academics, sports, arts and so on. A student has to show exemplary performance in a particular area of interest to get the scholarship. A merit-based scholarship is for anyone who meets the skills criteria.

Such scholarships incentivise students to work towards their personal growth and achieve excellence in their varied areas of interests.

Benefits of earning a Merit Scholarship 

When your child earns a scholarship by doing their best, they learn the importance of hard work and dedication. Awarded for excellence in academic proficiency, sports, artistic abilities or community efforts, scholarships prove to students that good deeds and hard work do get noticed. Students receive reinforcement for being a positive presence in and out of the classroom. Some of the other benefits are: 

1. Profile boost: When it's time to move beyond the learning at school, scholarship recipients have additional rights to take pride in their achievements. It gives a boost during college admissions and on job resumes. Being identified as high achievers, it gives them a competitive edge.

2. Recognition: Whether the scholarship has been awarded for  academic or non-academic achievements, it’s a source of pride for both students and parents. The recognition for doing well, excelling and maintaining that reputation also builds a student’s self-confidence in the process.

3. Offsets tuition cost: Among the many benefits of scholarships, helping to offset the cost of tuition is a boost for families, allowing them to save and use the funds for future studies. 

Scholarships offered at GIIS

From Grades 1 through 12, a variety of scholarships are available at GIIS. The idea is to give all students an equal footing and access to GIIS’ state-of-the-art facilities, faculty and multiple international curricula.

For merit-based scholarships, GIIS looks at more than just academic performance as part of its 9GEMS holistic educational framework. Scholarships are also awarded for sports ability and performance, leadership and technology skills. 

At GIIS, winners of international-level competitions, including events such as T20 Matches, World Shooting Championship, and Wimbledon (Jr), among others, alongside winners of national-level contests CBSE board National/Zonal competitions, as well as those who excel in inter-school competitions such as ACSIS tournaments and SONY Creative, all symbols of achievement and pride – are eligible for scholarships. 

There are more skills, which are considered under the various scholarship categories offered to GIIS students. Students who lead by example, both academically and in other areas of life, often get chosen for these rewards.

They could have mastered the art of being a kind citizen, or have worked hard to improve their community in a specific area. They may be gifted at mathematics or soccer, fluent in the arts or several languages.

Our scholarships are based on more than just financial needs or test scores. As a result, a wider sampling of students across a broader spectrum benefit from GIIS scholarships.

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Also read: How does your child benefit from of an all-through school

GIIS students are awarded scholarships for demonstrating excellence in academics and beyond
GIIS students are awarded scholarships for demonstrating excellence in academics and beyond

Our scholarships include:

● Mahatma Gandhi Universal Values Merit-cum-Means Scholarship: Open to residents of Singapore who have demonstrated both academic merit and financial need.

● 9GEMS Holistic Development Scholarship: Open to students who have demonstrated a good balance between academic performance and extracurricular activity.

● Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Global Skills Scholarship: Designed to reward students for excellence in science and technology skills.

● Global Future-Ready Merit Scholarship: Rewards high academic achievers to attend our school as a pathway to esteemed universities.

● Global Citizen Scholarship: Allows distinguished students from ASEAN, South Asian, Gulf & European Union countries to attend our state-of-the-art SMART Campus, Singapore. This premium scholarship is offered to students ONLY ONCE every year.

Most scholarships are awarded every three months, four times a year, by the Global Schools Foundation. 

Enhanced scholarships for Grades 1-12

Our Mahatma Gandhi Universal Values Merit-cum-Means Scholarship now caters to diverse financial backgrounds, supporting deserving students from moderate-income families in achieving their academic goals. We have recently expanded our Merit-cum-means scholarship criteria to support more moderate-income families. Moreover, the scholarship limit has now been increased to $170,000.

Furthermore, we've expanded the 9GEMS Holistic Development Scholarship, offering more opportunities for sports and cultural achievements at international, national, district and inter-school levels. Our aim is to provide affordable education and empower students to excel in various areas.

9GEMS scholarship now covers sports/cultural achievements globally, nationally, and in inter-school competitions. 

To be eligible, families must apply within the application timeline, and students must meet the individual requirements.

Outcomes of scholarships

These scholarships serve as the best type of motivators for our students who continue to excel in and out of the classrooms. If you would like more information about admission to GIIS Singapore or wish to learn more about the availability of scholarships, contact our admissions office today.


Rupali Karekar

Ms Karekar comes with over 20 years experience in content writing and content strategy in fields from journalism and content marketing. As head of international communications, she has been actively interacting with stakeholders like the student, teacher and parent community to ensure open channels of dialogue and passage of information between all parties. As a result, the school initiatives and stakeholder performances find the right platform and voice to share their achievements.

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