TN Minister Anbil initiates college exposure visits to govt school students; goal to reach 100% Gross Enrollment Ratio
The focus of this initiative is to ensure that all students who have completed their schooling must pursue higher education, especially government school students from economically and socially weaker backgrounds.
School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi
CHENNAI: To provide vital exposure to higher education, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi inaugurated an exposure visit for government school students at Anna University here on Monday.
The focus of this initiative is to ensure that all students who have completed their schooling must pursue higher education, especially government school students from economically and socially weaker backgrounds.
Through these continuous efforts, the school education and higher education departments in TN are focused on increasing the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) from 47% to 100%, stated the press note.
As per official data, 15.70 lakh students in 6,218 government higher secondary and high schools received guidance for higher education under the Naan Mudhalvan scheme in 2024. In the academic year 2022-23, around 70% of government school students (2.76 lakh out of 3.97 lakh) are pursuing higher education. In 2023-24, over 2.50 lakh students out of 3.36 lakh (77%) joined college.
As part of various initiatives to ensure students join colleges, 33,339 students visited 430 colleges in 2022-23, and 1.15 lakh visited 741 colleges in 2023-24. This number has currently spiked to 1.46 lakh students from 722 government and government-aided colleges visiting universities/colleges across TN.
Addressing the media during the event, Minister Poyyamozhi said, “Such exposures will motivate students to pursue higher education. We’ve seen results over the years. Though the State’s GER is only at 47%, we’re targeting 100%.”
Speaking about the Union government withholding Samagra Shiksha funds, the minister pointed out that the State has moved the Supreme Court. “Though we had requested for the previous pending funds of Rs 2,152 crore in addition to the current pending amount of Rs 600 crore, the Centre has not released the funds as yet,” he added.
