Our State Government is doing a commendable job by ensuring that each child gets basic primary education along with free food. Using this free education model, thousands of students from rural areas have emerged with flying colours and great ambitions about their career. However, they seem to hit a financial roadblock when it comes to higher education as most cannot afford it.

Unfortunately, close to one lakh students from Tamil Nadu alone are unable to pursue their higher education and drop their educational aspirations before acquiring the skills and knowledge to build lucrative careers. This is a terrible setback for our country at large. Bank loans for higher education are also not easily available to all students in need. Often, they lose out on good opportunities before they get a loan and if they do get a loan, the financial burden puts them under constant stress while studying.

The responsibility to better this situation does not lie with the Government or banks alone. It is our collective responsibility to help the future of our country and we need to support our students to ensure that they receive the higher education that they deserve. The Arunai International Research Foundation team that works at the grassroots level actively identifies underprivileged, meritorious students from rural areas who are unlikely to pursue their higher education due to financial constraints. Arunai International Research Foundation constantly works to help build support for these students so they get fair opportunities.