TN tops southern states in availing students’ education loans
PM-Vidyalaxmi increased GER of govt school students in state
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CHENNAI: With the state's Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) being high, besides the growing young population, Tamil Nadu is ranked top among the southern states in students’ availing more education loans for higher studies under the Union government scheme.
The Ministry of Education has implemented “Pradhan Mantri Vidyalaxmi” (PM-Vidyalaxmi) in November 2024, a central sector scheme to provide financial support to meritorious students so that financial constraints do not prevent any youth of the country from pursuing quality higher education.
Accordingly, loan amounts up to Rs 7.5 lakh are provided a 75 per cent credit guarantee by the Centre to support banks to expand coverage. In addition, the loan scheme is collateral-free and guarantor-free.
With regard to the calculation of beneficiaries, a senior official from the Higher Education Department said that the state-wise population in the age-group 18-23 years and the GER of the state in higher education will be taken into account.
Quoting the latest report issued by the Centre in 2025, he said that Tamil Nadu has a population in the age group between 18 and 23 is 69,37,600.
"Going by the GER calculation, a total of 4,590 students from the State benefited in 2025," he added.
The official said that in Karnataka, as many as students have benefited 4,403 from the PM-Vidyalaxmi loan scheme, Kerala, it is 2,070, Andhra Pradesh (3,428) and in Telangana, the number of beneficiaries is 2,590.
Claiming that the number of students, who will be benefited from PM-Vidyalaxmi loan scheme, will increase further next year, he pointed out that the School Education Department has launched career guidance program to facilitate the transition of all class 10 students from government schools to higher secondary education and to encourage class 12 students to pursue higher education.
"This initiative has increased the GER of government school students from 47 % to 74 %," he said, adding, "The project is focusing on improving access, increasing awareness and providing necessary assistance to achieve the target of 100% GER in the coming years.”
