The Tamil Nadu government has announced the state's general budget for the financial year 2022-23. Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan, who presented the budget in the State's Assembly reiterated his concerns about the stability of the federal structure of government in India and the interference of the Centre in matters under the states' control, issues he had also discussed during the ThinkEdu Conclave organised by The New Indian Express earlier this month.
With NEET at the centre of that debate, it is indeed interesting to see what the state has in store for the education sector this year.
For starters, the government has announced a flagship School Development Scheme to construct 18,000 smart classrooms over the next five years. The scheme, which will be carried out at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, will also modernise hostels, labs and existing classrooms in all government schools. Rs 250 crore has also been allocated to modernise government colleges.
For the girl child, the Tamil Nadu government has proposed to transfer Rs 1,000 directly into the accounts of girl students per month, until they complete their undergraduate degree, diploma and ITI courses. The government claims that this scheme will impact 5 lakh girls and increase enrolment in higher education.
Education in the Tamil language will also be given a booster dose, with Rs 15 crore being invested to provide textbooks and notebooks to students from Class I to X in unaided Tamil-medium private institutions.
In another massive announcement, the government has said that it will bear the entire cost of undergraduate education for those students who have studied in government schools from classes VI to XII. This is being done to encourage students to set their targets for premier institutions such as AIIMS and IITs.
There are also allocations to improve libraries and the start-up and innovation ecosystem in the state. The government has announced that the newly-created six districts will get a District Central Library each in a project that will cost the government Rs 36 crore.
The Tamil Nadu Start-up and Innovation Mission has been allocated Rs 30 crore in the budget this time and to add to that, Rs 50 crore has been set aside for emerging sector seed funds in the state.
