Chennai: In a bid to increase enrolment and check school dropouts, particularly in villages, Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday announced a slew of freebies, including free footwear and bags to the students, and allocated about Rs 491 crore.
The Government will provide two more sets of uniforms to
the students of Class 1 to 8 in addition to the existing two
sets from 2012-13 academic year, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa
said.
Boys from class six and above would now get full-pants
instead of half pants, while girls will be given `salwar
kameez`.
Nearly 47 lakh students would get the benefit.
The government would incur an expenditure of Rs 259.95
crore on providing the new uniforms, the Chief Minister said.
She also ordered to provide footwear to 81 lakh students
at a cost of about Rs 94 crore.
Besides, nearly 92 lakh students would also receive
uniform school bags, geometry box and colour pencil boxes and
the government would incur an expenditure of about Rs 136
crore, she said.
To encourage students belonging to Backward Class,
Most Backward and Denotified Communities to excel in studies,
the prize money for class ten and 12 toppers at district level
have also been increased.
PTI
