A Scheme to Provide Free Tablets to Std.12th Pass Students(ASPFTS12PS)

Overview

About ASPFTS12PS

A Scheme to Provide Free Tablets to Std.12th Pass Students never hands anyone a device. It is a refund run by Gujarat's Tribal Development Department: a Scheduled Tribe student who paid the token to collect the Education Department's college tablet gets that token back, which is how a scheme with "free tablets" in its title can pay out in cash.

The Director of Tribal Development's guideline for 2025-2026 names it "Financial Assistance for 12th passed out ST student for the purchase of Tablet" under the code VKY-16, open to boys and girls alike (ST students' guideline, Director of Tribal Development). The token it settles is the one the Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat describes for the NAMO E-Tablet Scheme, where an amount of 1000 rupees has to be submitted for the tablet (NAMO E-Tablet Scheme, Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat).

Whether the refund can be claimed at all is now the bigger question. The Director's guideline for 2026-27, which governs the Scheduled Tribe window that opened on the Gujarat State Scholarship Portal on 01/09/2026, does not list the tablet refund in its scheme table (current ST guideline, Director of Tribal Development; Gujarat State Scholarship Portal). That is an omission, not a closure notice: the guideline never mentions the tablet at all, so it neither ends the refund nor explains its absence. The state's Outcome Budget 2026-2027, published in February 2026, still keeps VKY-16 under the name "Incentive Assistance for Higher Education including Tablet and competitive exams", yet the only targets it prints under that head are 2,000 NEET and JEE candidates and 1,500 GPSC students, with no tablet count (Outcome Budget 2026-27, Government of Gujarat). On the device side, the newest NAMO e-TAB document on an official page is a government resolution dated 01/11/2021, listed by the Directorate of Technical Education (NAMO e-TAB resolutions, Directorate of Technical Education).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The refund has no fixed calendar of its own; it rides on the Tribal Development Department's yearly window for ST scholarships and on whether the Education Department distributed tablets that year.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two documents set the test, and only the second one decides payment. The scheme record defines the Gujarat Scheduled Tribe student it is meant for. The Tribal Development guideline adds the condition that turns eligibility into money: the student must already have obtained a tablet under the Education Department's tablet scheme by depositing the token, and must be in the first year of study in the academic year of the claim (ST students' guideline).

Family income plays no part: the guideline's table records no income limit against the tablet line, and the caste certificate uploaded with the claim has to be one issued by a competent authority (ST students' guideline).

One course rule deserves a second look. The Director's guideline says only "first year", without naming a level (ST students' guideline). Gujarat's scheme directory, Mari Yojana, narrows that to ST students admitted to the first year of graduate-level courses in a recognised university (Mari Yojana scheme list), while the NAMO tablet itself also reaches polytechnic students (Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat). A diploma first-year holding a NAMO tablet is therefore inside one official description and outside the other, and should ask the district Assistant Commissioner (Tribal Development) before counting on the refund.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The refund excludes anyone with nothing to refund. A first-year who never obtained a tablet has no claim for the Tribal Development Department to settle, and a student past the first year of the course falls outside the guideline's wording (ST students' guideline).

The guideline's general instructions add two ways an otherwise valid claim is lost in practice (ST students' guideline):

• An application left without the final submit, or never handed to the college in print with its documents, is not taken up.
• A bank account that has sat unused long enough to turn dormant cannot receive the credit, and a wrongly typed account number is the student's own loss.

The guideline's closing note limits every scheme in its table to Scheduled Tribe students (ST students' guideline), so a Scheduled Caste student who took the same tablet has no claim here.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is nothing to renew. The guideline ties the refund to the academic year in which the student is in the first year and took the tablet, so the claim is made once (ST students' guideline). The automatic renewal forms described in the same guideline serve students who drew a scholarship the year before and continue on it, which a single deposit refund never does.

What you get

Award & benefits

The award is the token and nothing more: one thousand rupees, paid once. The Gujarati text of the Director's guideline states it as રૂ.૧૦૦૦/- પરત, the Rs 1,000 returned to a student who paid it for the Education Department's tablet (ST students' guideline), which matches the 1000 rupees the Knowledge Consortium says students submit for the device (Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat). The device stays with the Education Department's programme; the tribal department only settles the deposit.

The guideline says scholarship money under these schemes goes to the bank account linked with the student's Aadhaar number, so an account not seeded with Aadhaar holds up the credit (ST students' guideline).

The record printed with this page gets one fact wrong. Its Benefits line and short description speak of Scheduled Caste students in the 12th standard receiving a tablet for a token fee. Every other official description says Scheduled Tribe:

• Under the scheme, students in the 12th standard belonging to the Scheduled Caste category will receive a tablet by paying a token fee of ₹1,000/-.

What to prepare

Documents required

The record names four documents, but the guideline's own list, written for all the schemes in its table, asks for the year-wise final marksheet of every course from the tenth standard onward rather than the Std 12 marksheet alone. Each paper is scanned from the original where one exists and uploaded, and the printed application then goes to the college with self-attested copies of whatever was uploaded (ST students' guideline).

The bank document has to show the account number, the IFSC and the branch; where banks have merged, the guideline asks for the passbook or cheque of the new bank with the new account number. Neither the record nor the guideline names a separate receipt for the token deposit, so it is worth asking the college what proof of the deposit it expects (ST students' guideline).

Step by step

How to apply

The most recent cycle that listed the refund, 2025-2026, ran through Digital Gujarat's Scholarship Services, where the tablet line sat under the Tribal Development Department heading. The final submit, after an OTP check on the registered mobile, sent the claim into the college's login, and the student then handed the college a printout with the documents (ST students' guideline). At village level the form could also be filled online at an e-Gram centre.

For 2026-27 the Tribal Development Department points applicants to gssp.gujarat.gov.in, and the portal colours each scheme: green where applications are being accepted, red where they are closed (current ST guideline, Director of Tribal Development; Gujarat State Scholarship Portal). Digital Gujarat's own Scholarship Services menu now links to the same portal (Digital Gujarat). A first-year looking for the refund should check whether a tablet line shows in green before assuming it can be claimed.

Tracking the Claim

On the scholarship portal, the Scholarship Service Requests screen lists a student's applications once the year is chosen and Show is clicked (current ST guideline, Director of Tribal Development); Digital Gujarat's help page points to the My Applications section for the same purpose (Digital Gujarat FAQ). If the college says the claim never reached its login, look first at the course step: the guideline warns that picking the wrong institution or course sends the online form to another school, college or university, and leaves that mistake with the student (ST students' guideline).

How winners are picked

Selection process

No one is ranked. The guideline's table sets a single test (an ST student who paid the token and took the tablet, in the first year) and anyone who meets it qualifies (ST students' guideline). The practical checkpoints are the college, which receives the online application in its login and can send it back for corrections, and the Aadhaar-linked bank account the money must reach. The guideline puts no cap on the number of students who can claim.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The guideline calls its scheme details guidance and leaves the final reading to the government resolution, so a dispute over eligibility is settled by the resolution rather than by the portal text (ST students' guideline). No payment is made offline. The Director's newest guideline allows one application per Aadhaar number (current ST guideline, Director of Tribal Development).

Get help

Contact

For help with the form, the guideline sends students to the office of the Assistant Commissioner (Tribal Development) in their district, and a student whose registered mobile number is lost or closed changes it at the district tribal development office after proving identity (ST students' guideline).

Above the district, the Directorate's officer list names an Assistant Commissioner (Education Schemes), reachable at astcommi3-ctd-gnr@gujarat.gov.in, and gives +91 79 23257703 as the Directorate's own line (Commissionerate of Tribal Development). A login or form fault on gssp.gujarat.gov.in is for the Helpdesk Support number printed on that portal's contact page, toll-free on 18002335500 (Gujarat State Scholarship Portal).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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