Date:25/03/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/03/25/stories/2005032509940400.htm

Tamil Nadu

Free textbooks up to Class 10

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 24. Students from Classes 1 to 10 will not have to pay for their textbooks from the coming academic year. Until now, only students from Classes 1 to 5 got books free.

Making a suo motu announcement in the Assembly today, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said this scheme would benefit 12 lakh students and cost the Government an additional Rs. 15 crores.

The total number of students now benefiting from the scheme would touch the 97-lakh mark. The total cost to the Government would be Rs. 61.45 crores.

To ensure that students remained in school even if the earning parent was dead or severely handicapped, the Government decided to help them.

A sum of Rs. 50,000 would be given to each such student. It would be deposited in Government financial institutions and the expenses met out of interest accrued.

She said none of the 1.12 crore students studying in Classes 1 to 12 should discontinue their education because of some unforeseen development in their families.

The Chief Minister said her Government had taken a keen interest in education. This ensured a fall in the dropout rate in primary schools from 16 per cent in 2001-02 to six per cent in 2004-05.