TN Governemnt announced Cash incentives to check school dropout rate

             Students of classes X, XI and XII in government and government-aided schools will be entitled to an incentive after completion of schooling, Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam told the Assembly in the Budget speech for 2011-12 here on Thursday. The total outlay for School Education is Rs.13,334 crore.

          While students of classes X and XI will receive Rs.1,500 each per year for completion, students of class XII will receive Rs.2000, he said. The amount would be invested in a fixed deposit scheme and given to students on their completion of schooling. The initiative, with a total outlay of Rs.394.04 crore, is expected to cover a total of 24,94,649 students every year and arrest the dropout rates at high and higher secondary school levels.

          Senior sources in the department said this was, perhaps, the first time in the country that such an incentive has been announced. “If you give the incentive at lower classes, say primary level, there is still no guarantee that the children complete schooling. When you target students in the higher classes, this will motivate them to somehow complete class XII,” a senior official said.

 

Knowledge Park

              An Integrated Knowledge Park will come up on the campus of the Directorate of Public Instruction here that houses all the Directorates under the purview of the department, with state-of-the-art buildings and facilities such as conference halls, training centres, counselling centres and an EDUSAT centre with a studio. The park will help children obtain knowledge beyond the textbooks. According to the senior official, the decision follows an analysis of the aerial view of the 16-acre DPI campus on College Road. A sum of Rs.498.24 crore has been set aside for school infrastructure and Rs.27.07 crore would go towards strengthening School Management Committees constituted under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

            A total of Rs.150 crore has been allocated for the implementation of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, a Central Government initiative that aims to improve quality of education at secondary level. The government will provide two sets of school uniforms to students in the year 2011-12 at a cost of Rs.59 crore and four sets in 2012-13 at a cost of Rs.177 crore. Boys from class VI upward will receive full pants instead of half pants, and girls will receive salwar-kameez instead of half-saris. All students of government and government-aided schools will receive a free pair of footwear each. 

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Minority Communities Students seeking scholarship told to open bank accounts in Cuddalore District

CUDDALORE:

        Students belonging to minority communities, who are seeking educational scholarship, have been asked to open accounts in nationalised banks.

           The banks have been directed to facilitate this without insisting on any initial payment, according to V. Amuthavalli, Collector.

            In a statement released here, she said that minority community students would have to necessarily quote the bank account number and the MICR Code number in the scholarship applications. 

The applications could also be downloaded from 

http://www.tn.gov.in/bcmbcmw/welfschemes_minorities.htm

           Those studying from Class I to Class X, with annual parental income not exceeding Rs. 1 lakh, and those who have scored not less than 50 per cent of mark in the previous class (this condition would not apply to the students in Class I) are eligible for the scholarship. The applications for scholarship renewal must be submitted to the respective schools before July 4 and fresh applications before July 11, the Collector added.

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State to double hostels for Muslim women students

CUDDALORE: 

              It has been proposed to double the number of hostels for Muslim girl/women students in the State in the coming academic year, said Rev.Fr. Vincent Chinnadurai, Chairman of the State Minorities Welfare Commission.

                Addressing a press conference here on Thursday Fr. Chinnadurai said that based on the recommendations of the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee these hostels were being set up in the Muslim dominated areas.

             At present there were five hostels for Muslim women students and the number would be increased to 10 in the coming year. Fr. Chinnadurai further said that the Vanniyars and Dalits who had adopted Christianity had made representations to the Commission to include them in the Most Backward Classes and the Scheduled Caste lists respectively. The petitioners pleaded that the classification should be based on the caste/community and not on the religion. If it were so they would not be entitled to the benefits enjoyed their fellow members of the same community.

          Fr. Chinnadurai said that the Commission would represent their views to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and to the Justice Janardhanan Commission. The Chief Minister had already gone on record stating that based on the recommendations of the Commission a decision would be taken on the issue.

Welfare measures

               The Chairman said that last year the State Government had sanctioned Rs.30 crore for the welfare of the minorities. Besides this, it had obtained unutilised funds from other States to the tune of Rs.6 crore, thus, raising the total to Rs.36 crore.

               The funds were utilised for giving away educational scholarships, personal loans and micro-credits. The Chairman said that as per the 2001 Census there were 1,02,508 Muslims and 73,611 Christians in Cuddalore district.

              Last year, a sum of Rs.1.63 crore was given away to 650 beneficiaries in the district which was Rs.60 lakh higher than what was sanctioned the previous year. Last year scholarships to the tune of Rs.19.56 lakh were given away to 940 students, and this year a sum of Rs.78.95 lakh was disbursed as scholarship to 2,985 students. Moreover, the Chairman appreciated the communal harmony prevailing in the district.

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