Chennai, Jan 30 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government will be opening counselling centres at government schools across the state which will be run by former school students. The centres will provide career guidance and job opportunities to students of classes 9 to 12.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told IANS: "In the last assembly session, I had announced that counseling centres would be opened in all government schools in the state to support students of classes 9 to 12 for their higher education and future career prospects. While teachers and parents will be involved in these centres, old students of the schools will also be in the team as the presence of these seniors will help bridge the communication gap with the new generation."

The minister said that a fund of Rs 3,08,85,000 (Three crore eight lakh and eighty-five thousand rupees only) was allocated for this scheme.

Student module creation through workshops (curriculum, syllabus, and module), development of career guidance portals for students, blended training for teachers and online certificate courses, career guidance pamphlets, identifying and orienting talented students are the main jobs to be done by the counseling centres that are to be opened in schools.

The Education Minister said that the School Education Department (SED) has launched an e-certificate service for school children. The certificates that are to be distributed include equivalence, genuineness, and Tamil medium certificates, certified copies of mark sheets, and migration and conduct certificates. Generally, students had to physically visit the schools or district educational offices for these certificates.

The students can now approach e-seva centres for these certificates now and the scheme is implemented under the Tamil Nadu e-Governance agency's e-district project.