Chennai, Aug 5 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government will open special camps for male students ahead of the Tamil Pudhavalan scheme for boys in schools.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will inaugurate the scheme on August 9. It will provide Rs 1000 monthly assistance to these students who studied in government schools from Class 6 to Class 12 till they complete UG/Diploma /ITI or any other recognised course.

When this scheme for the girl students of government schools was implemented there was difficulty as the students did not have bank accounts. The state school education department set up camps and assisted the students to open bank accounts as the scheme envisages direct transfer of money to the accounts of the students.

A higher education department official told IANS that special camps would be set up in colleges with the support of banks to assist the male students to open bank accounts.

The Tamil Pudhalvan scheme will be implemented with an annual budget of Rs 360 crore.

Tamil Nadu finance minister Thangam Thenarasu while announcing the scheme in the assembly in February 2024 has said that the scheme was launched for increase the enrolment rate of male students in higher education.

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE ) by the ministry of higher education in Tamil Nadu boys were lagging behind the girls.

As per this study the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of girls in higher education stands at 47.3% while that of the boys is 46.8 %.