Stalin moves bill for 7.5% quota to govt school students in professional courses
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Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a bill bill in Assembly on Thursday granting a 7.5% quota to government school students in admissions to professional courses of engineering, agriculture, fisheries and law.
Earlier this month, the Chief Minister had announced the decision at a cabinet meeting and informed that the required legislation would be tabled in the following budget session.
Moving the bill in the Assembly on Thursday, Stalin pointed to the low percentage of students from government high schools qualifying for admissions to professional courses due to their relatively poor background and lack of awareness.
Stalin also recalled the 2006 decision of the then DMK government to cancel the entrance test for professional courses on the ground that the entrance tests were weighted heavily in favour of rich and urban students. "There are many difficulties in government school students in getting into professional courses. They have to compete with students from private schools," Stalin said.
The house had unanimity on the concept, with MLAs from opposition AIADMK also supporting the bill; Opposition leader Edappadi K Palaniswami said his party welcomed the bill. As such the bill stands the chance of a unanimous passage in the Assembly.
The decision for the bill is based on the recommendation of the justice (retired) D Murugesan committee, which the current government formed in June. After examining the reasons for poor representation of government school students in professional courses, the Committee recommend remedial measures including the quota.
In the report submitted on July 21, the committee recommende special quota of 10 % for government school students. However, the government made it 7.5 % after weighing all relevant factors.
In a related move, during the earlier tenure run by the AIADMK, the government had introduced a similar percentage of quota for government schools in admissions to medical courses such as MBBS from among those who cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).