Tamil Nadu on Top in Higher Education

 Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin’s visionary schemes aimed at promoting education have enabled the State to finish on top by achieving a 49 per cent GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) as per the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) and the pushing up the percentage of girls from government schools enrolling for higher education to 34 per cent.

The surge in girls continuing their education after school is attributed to the ‘Pudumai Penn’ scheme, under which girl students enrolling for higher education courses after studying in government schools from Class 6 to 12 are given a monthly assistance of Rs 1000.

The scheme was launched September 6, 2022, by the Chief Minister and has so far benefitted 2, 73,000 students, who not only enrolled for courses in professional and arts and science colleges but polytechnics but continued their studies without dropping out, thanks to the government unfailingly crediting Rs 1000 into their bank accounts, according to government statistics.

A few other schemes that had helped students from the lower socioeconomic strata phenomenally enabling them to gain upward mobility in life were the ‘Naan Mudhalvan’ scheme that had benefitted 27 lakh students since 2022 , the stipend paid for first generation graduate students and the industrial skill development scheme.

Through the stipend paid for three years for first generation graduates 4,13,241 students had moved up in life with the government spending Rs 1000 crore and under the industrial skill development scheme 10,000 students are chosen every year for a 25-day internship in companies. Apart from a stipend of Rs 16,600 paid during the internship, the students had also managed to land jobs in the same companies, according to Government data.

Another 1,2000 students had also benefited from the scheme to teach foreign languages like German, French and Japanese to engineering students with a view to broadening their scope for employment in the international job market.

The government spending Rs 50 crore for encouraging research by paying a fellowship of R 25,000 for three years had led to the generation of 1,960 research papers while the installation of LMS (Learning Management Systems) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems at a cost of Rs 150 crore in 14 government universities and the departments of higher education and technical education paved the way for a digital revolution in education.

For the Kamaraj College Development Scheme, envisaging the development of infrastructure in all government institutions, Rs 1000 crore was sanctioned for five years. In the first phase in 2022-23 Rs 250 crore and in the next phase in 2023-24 another Rs 200 crore were allocated for additional buildings, new colleges, laboratories and other facilities.

The government honoured 10 scientists from the Indian Space Research Organisation by presenting them a purse of Rs 25 lakh each for their contribution to Indian space research and bringing fame to the State.

Those who obtained admissions in professional colleges under the 7.5 per cent reservation for students from government schools were able to continue their studies uninterrupted due to the government taking care of their college fees, hostel fees and transport charges by spending Rs 213.37 crore on the 23,601 beneficiaries.

The Naan Mudhalvan scheme that trained and groomed 1,84,000 students for tackling entrance tests, interviews and other challenges in the employment market enabled 1,19,000 students to land government jobs and totally benefitted 27 lakh students since its launch in 2022, a government data revealed.