chennai tamil nadu unveiled a massive 7000crore scheme to modernise government schools build 18000 new classrooms establish model schools and beef up other academic infrastructure over the next five yearsbuoyed by the enrolment of six lakh more students in government schools during the pandemic the state government on friday announced the launch of perasiriyar anbazhagan school development scheme it envisages upgrading and remodelling government schools including adi dravidar tribal and kallar reclamation schools in his budget speech finance minister palanivel thiaga rajan said along with creating necessary infrastructure in government schools 18000 new classrooms will be constructed work will be undertaken at a cost of 1300 crore in the coming financial year he saiddepending on the strength of students smart classrooms in primary schools and stateofthe art computer labs will be set up in the budget speech the finance minister also announced establishing 15 more model schools in the coming academic year to ensure students from government schools get admissions in reputed institutions to pursue higher education in science technology engineering arts and medicinethe department had already established 10 such model schools in educationally backward districts this year the national education policy 2020 asked the state governments to identify schools with poor infrastructure and club them as school complexes tamil nadu government has now come forward to strengthen the infrastructure it is a positive development and rejection of nep said p b prince gajendrababu general secretary state platform for common school systemhowever he opposed the idea of establishing model schools for government school students the concept of model school and special training in select schools for pursuing higher education is against equitable access to all children it is highly misleading and also plants an idea that students selected to study in model schools alone are good in learning prince gajendrababu added aruna ratnam former education specialist with unicef asked the government to give priority to improve government schools in the most neglected areas