PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS TOWARDS COSTFREE WELFARE SCHEMES IN SCHOOL EDUCATION – A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF TAMIL NADU

This exploratory study was aimed to understand the Government school students' perception towards cost-free welfare schemes of Government of Tamil Nadu. The researchers has adopted survey method to gather the perception from school students those who are residing in Chennai city of Tamil Nadu and pursuing their school education at different Government schools. The data collected were subjected to analysis by using percentage analysis, descriptive statistics, mean based ranking, factor analysis and independent sample t test. The result indicates that four independent factors have been extracted out of 15 SEG variables of which is Enrichment Factor the most dominant one, followed by Amenities Factor, Cost-Free Welfare Schemes Factor and Sports Factor in the order of dominance. The respondents have given higher perception on awareness of various Cost-Free Welfare Schemes offered to school students as compared to accessibility to Cost-Free Welfare Schemes offered to school students. To conclude, school students are expecting more welfare schemes from Tamil Nadu school education department to increase the enrollment ratio across different Government schools. Especially, the food offered in noon-meal system can be enriched with good quality to attract more number of beneficiaries in Government schools of Tamil Nadu.