CHENNAI: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday announced a slew of measures to reduce the dropout rate among students in villages and allocated Rs 491 crore for the purpose.Students in classes I to VIII in schools functioning under the Elementary and School Education departments, municipalities and corporations and those who are enrolled under the noon meal scheme will get two more sets of uniforms in addition to the two sets that are being provided now. For girls in classes VI and above, salwar kameez will be provided instead of half-sarees. Boys in the same classes will get full pants instead of half-pants. A total of 23,33,418 boys and 23,51,660 girls will be benefitted by this measures during the academic year 2012-13. It will entail an additional expense of `259.95 crore to the exchequer. For all students in classes I to X in government and government-aided schools, a pair of footwear will be given free of cost. As many as 35,00,556 students in classes I to V will get a pair of footwear each at a cost of `96. For 27,95,639 students in classes VI to VIII, the footwear will have a price tag of `127. The cost of each pair for 18,05,933 students in classes IX and X will be `142. The CM allocated `94.76 crore for this.Schoolbags, each worth `75, will be given to students in classes I to III. While students in classes IV to VII will get bags worth `100 each, those in classes VIII to XII will get bags worth of `125. A total of 92,28,374 students will be benefitted by this.Similarly, geometry boxes worth `35 each will be given to students in classes VI to X. They are expected to maintain them for two years. In each academic year, students studying in classes VI, VIII and X will get a geometry box each. In all, 46,01,572 students will be benefitted by this measure.Besides, students in classes I to V will get a set of colour pencils worth `20. In all, 35,00,556 students will be benefitted by this. Students in the classes VI to X will get geographical maps worth `50 each. As many as 46,00,572 students will be benefitted by this. For providing schoolbags, geometry boxes, colour pencils and geographical maps, the CM has earmarked `136.50 crore.At present, a cash prize of `1,500, 1,000 and `500 is being given for the first three rank-holders respectively among the students of SSLC belonging to BCs, MBCs and denotified communities, at the district level. This will be increased to `3,000, ` 2,000 and `1,000 hereafter. Dor the students of Plus Two, the prize amount will go up from `3,000 to `6,000, `2,000 to `4,000 and `1,000 to `2,000 hereafter. The measure will cost an additional expenditure of `11.52 lakh.
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