Education dept plans to bring 33,519 dropouts back to school

The meetings were attended by Ministers KA Sengottaiyan and KP Anbalagan in which secretaries Pradeep Yadav and Sunil Paliwal made the presentations. Projections for the present fiscal were also brought up for discussion. As regards to School Education Department, a senior official said the government has identified as much as 33,519 out-of-school children and will bring them on board to the mainstream. 

The official added that the state would extend provision of four sets of uniforms, school bags, footwear, study materials, cycles and bus passes free of cost as part of welfare measures. “The government would also disburse free laptops and implementing Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The total budgetary allocation of School Education Department would be around Rs 27,205 crore,” the official said. 

On Higher Education Department, sources said the state had already decided to revise the block grants to Universities from the current fiscal. “The revision would mean that the universities do not have to fall back on research grants or loans or its pension corpus. As much as Rs 500.65 crore has been earmarked towards block grants, of which Rs 250 crore would be allocated to Annamalai University,” the official said. Budgetary allocation for Higher Education would be Rs 4,620 crore.