About Shiksha Sarathi Foundation
A non-profit organisation working with students from economically weaker backgrounds, at the point where school ends and everything after it is decided.
We work at the point where everything after school is decided
Shiksha Sarathi Foundation is a non-profit organisation registered as a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013.
We work with students from economically weaker backgrounds at a single, decisive point in their lives — the years when school is ending and everything that follows is being settled. What course, what college, what examination, what work. For a great many capable students, those questions get answered by circumstance rather than by choice.
We exist to change how those questions are answered, and we do it in two ways. We fund merit scholarships for students who cannot meet the cost of continuing their education after class 12. And we provide the guidance that tells a student what to study, where it leads, which entrance examination is worth sitting, and which course is worth paying for.
Ability is distributed evenly across a population. Opportunity is not.
When a capable student stops short of what they were able to do, it is almost never because the ability was absent. It is usually one of two things. Either the money could not be found in the one month it was needed, or nobody told them, in time, what was actually possible.
The first barrier is visible. A family knows exactly what an admission fee costs them, and everyone can see when it cannot be paid.
The second is invisible, and in our experience it stops just as many students. A scholarship deadline passes unnoticed. A fee-concession seat goes unclaimed because no one in the household had heard of it. A student picks a course on a neighbour’s advice and discovers three years later that it leads nowhere they wanted to go. Another pays a year’s savings to an institute for a certificate no employer recognises.
Nobody refused these students anything. They were simply never told.
That is a solvable problem, and solving it is a large part of what we do.
One scholarship we fund, and four services we provide
Merit Scholarship
Direct financial support for meritorious students from low-income families, paid when college fees actually fall due. Our current programme is the Shiksha Sarathi Merit Scholarship 2026, open to students in class 12. The Foundation funds and awards these scholarships itself.
Education mentorship
Which stream after class 10, which course after class 12, which colleges are genuinely within reach, what each option costs, and what has to be done by when.
Career mentorship
What a job actually involves day to day, what it pays at the start, what qualifications it truly requires, and what to do when the first plan does not work.
Competitive exam guidance
Which examination suits a particular student — CET, NEET, JEE, banking, SSC, railways, state services — and how to prepare sensibly, including how much of the preparation costs nothing at all.
Add-on skill courses
Short courses alongside your bachelor’s degree that lead to real work, which government and subsidised programmes are worth knowing about, and how to tell a genuine institute from one selling a worthless certificate.
The four guidance services are provided through expert partner mentors and institutes who specialise in each area. They set their own fees, we tell a student the cost before anything is booked, and where a family cannot meet it we arrange a concession, a discount or full sponsorship.
The commitments we hold ourselves to
Merit and need, through a published process
Scholarships are awarded on academic performance and financial need, assessed the same way for every applicant, with the criteria published in advance.
The scholarship costs nothing to apply for
There is no application fee, no processing fee and no charge at any stage. No agent, consultant or coaching centre is authorised to collect money in our name.
Independent guidance
The Foundation accepts no commission and no referral fee from any mentor, college, coaching centre or training institute. That independence is deliberate. It is what allows us to recommend a provider honestly — and, just as often, to tell a student that they do not need the service at all.
Cost should not decide who gets help
Where a student needs a service and the family cannot meet its cost, we arrange support. Each case is decided individually, on family income and on how much difference the service is likely to make.
Money reaches the student
Scholarships are transferred by bank transfer or cheque into the selected student’s own account. Never in cash, never through a college, never through a third party.
We follow up
A conversation that is never acted upon changes nothing. We check whether the application actually went in, whether the course delivered what was promised, and whether the plan is holding up months later. This is the least glamorous part of our work and the part that decides whether any of it mattered.
We publish what we do
Selection criteria, the number of students supported and our annual accounts are published each year, so that students and donors can both check them.
Open to any student who needs it
Our services are open to any student who needs them, without distinction of religion, caste, gender, language or background. Selection for scholarships is decided on merit and financial need, and on nothing else.
We also work with schools, colleges, NGOs and community organisations who see these students long before we do, and who can tell us which ones need reaching.
Why the scholarship starts in Karnataka
For the 2026 cycle, the scholarship programme is open to students studying in or domiciled in Karnataka. That is a deliberate limit rather than a lack of ambition. We would rather run one state thoroughly — verifying documents, interviewing every shortlisted candidate, and staying in touch with families afterwards — than accept applications from across the country that we could not process properly. The programme is built to grow beyond Karnataka, and that is where it is headed.
A country where a student’s education is decided by their ability and their effort — never by what their family is able to earn, and never by what nobody happened to tell them in time.
Four ways in
Students
Apply for the scholarship if the fees are what stands in your way, or send us a request if you simply do not know what to do next. Both cost nothing to ask.
Schools, colleges and NGOs
Partner with us. It costs your organisation nothing, and you are the people who see these students first.
Sponsors
Fund a scholar directly. A contribution goes to the scholarship award pool, paid into a scholar’s own bank account. No payment is taken on this site — tell us how you would like to help.
Volunteers
If you are a student at a partner school or college, help us reach and support your peers — spread the word on campus, help at our sessions and guide your juniors through applying.
Contact: connect@shikshasarathifoundation.org · +91 84949 77440