Nearly 1.08 crore students in Tamil Nadu, from Class I to Class XII, will get free textbooks from this academic year.
This will involve an annual expenditure of Rs 83.70 crore.
Eighteen students drawn from various schools in Chennai were handed over the textbooks by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at the secretariat on Wednesday.
Jayalalithaa on May 20 had announced that the free textbooks scheme would be expanded to cover students of Class XI and XII in government schools, aided schools and autonomous schools run with government assistance.
Education Minister C V Shanmugham, Chief Secretary N Narayanan and seniors officials attended the launch function.
