Tamil Nadu to spend ₹12,300 crore on new classrooms under Anbazhagan School Development Scheme

Stalin launches the first phase of the scheme under which 5,351 classrooms will be built at 2,381 primary and middle schools at a cost of ₹784 crore

Education and healthcare are the “two eyes” of the Tamil Nadu government, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the Government Boys Higher Secondary School at Katpadi near Vellore after launching the first phase of the Professor Anbazhagan School Development Scheme.

Under the Professor Anbazhagan School Development Scheme, 26,000 new classrooms would be built at a cost of ₹12,300 crore. In the first phase, 5,351 classrooms would be built at a cost of ₹784 crore at 2,381 primary and middle schools in 196 Assembly constituencies and 36 districts.

Mr. Stalin said government school students told him, during field visits, that they had to rush to school without having breakfast. Thereafter, he held consultations with officials and launched the breakfast scheme in select schools. “Like the existing mid-day meal scheme, the breakfast scheme will be extended to all schools in the State soon,” he said.

The Chief Minister said he was also moved by students attending classes under trees at government schools. Dilapidated school buildings in each district were surveyed and a detailed plan was devised for building classrooms. The new classrooms being built under the scheme were to provide students with a safe and friendly environment, he said.

Duraimurugan, Minister for Water Resources; I. Periyasamy, Minister for Rural Development; K. Ponmudy, Minister for Higher Education; Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Minister for School Education; Vellore Mayor Sujatha Anandkumar; Collector P. Kumaravel Pandian; and SP S. Rajesh Kannan participated at the function.