panaji around 3000 students from across goa had registered to answer the state level national talent search examination ntse for class x students and national means cum merit scholarship scheme nmms examination for class viii students for 202021the exam was held on sunday across 15 centres however a low turnout was seen at some of the centres as against the registered students possibly owing to the pandemicthe examination began at 9am and ended at 130pmwearing of face masks was made mandatory for students due to the pandemic in addition to putting other sops in place to ensure safety of studentsthe exam was conducted by the state council for educational research and training scerti was initially afraid to come for the exam for the fear of infection but when i came to my exam centre at gs amonkar high school at mapusa i saw that there was good arrangement two benches were left vacant between two students besides leaving benches on your either side too vacant thermal scanning while entering the premises was also carried out said a class x student rohan tariten or fewer students were accommodated in each class to ensure safe distance between studentsntse is a scholarship programme conducted by ncert as a part of their national talent search scheme launched way back in 1963 with an objective to identify talented students and encourage them to pursue higher education students who clear the exam are awarded a scholarship amountthe candidates who wish to give ntse exam in class x must have cleared class ix examination from a recognized board with a minimum of 60 markssimilarly the nmms is conducted every year by under a central government programme usually in the month of november for the students studying in class viii of government and aided schoolsthe candidates must be studying in class ix after getting promotion from class viii with a score of at least 55 or equivalent grades