Chennai:
In a bid to increase enrollment and check school dropouts, particularly in villages, Tamil Nadu Government today 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, to excel in studies, the prize money for class 10 and 12 toppers at district level have also been increased.