Chennai: Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Wednesday inaugurated the distribution of over two crore free books to students studying in government schools from classes 1 to 12. She also inaugurated the distribution of free notebooks and uniforms to students.
As the token of the inauguration, she gave away books, notebooks and uniforms to five students at a function held in the secretariat on Wednesday. A release from the state government said, “Over ninety lakh students from classes 1 to class 12 will get the free books and free notebooks will be distributed to 77 lakh students studying in classes 1 to 10. Four sets of free uniforms will be distributed to 47 lakh students who are studying from class 1 to 8.”
According to the sources in the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation, more than two crore free books have been printed and distributed to schools this year. Minister for school education P.Benjamin, chief secretary K.Gnanadesikan, the adviser to the state government Sheela Balakrishnan and principal secretary to the department of school education D.Sabitha and others participated in the inaugural function. Schools in the state reopened after summer vacation on Wednesday.
After making all efforts to distribute the free books to students on the opening day, the school education department directed the headmasters to not to distribute the books on Tuesday.
However, after the inauguration function in Chennai, the headmasters were told to distribute the books. “We have got the direction to distribute the books only in the afternoon. After that we started the distribution of free books to the students,” a government school headmaster said.
