The School Education Department has been provided ₹34,181.73 crore — the highest allocation for any department in this year’s Budget. Last year, it received ₹28,957.62 crore.
In his Budget speech, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam said the government accorded the highest priority to providing quality education to every child.
The State had topped the Performance Grading Index of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry in terms of providing access to schools. The dropout rate in T.N. has fallen to 0.8%, and the net enrolment rate in primary education has reached 99.88%.
Of the 30,104 children who had dropped out of schools, as many as 29,740 had been re-enrolled, the Deputy CM said.
School supplies
The government has allocated ₹1,018.39 crore for school supplies such as bags, uniforms, footwear, notebooks, textbooks, geometry boxes and colour pencils in the Budget estimates for 2020-21. As much as ₹966.44 crore has been allocated for the laptop scheme for Class XI students of government and aided schools.
Hi-tech laboratories will be set up at government and aided schools at a cost of ₹520 crore. “A total of 76,927 students have been admitted to private schools under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. The government has reimbursed ₹644.69 crore in fees to schools under the scheme,” the Deputy CM said.
