7.5% quota for govt students in all professional courses in TN

7.5% quota for govt students in all professional courses in TN

Panel Wanted State To Give 10% Quota

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai: 05.08.2021 

In an attempt to broad-base opportunity for students from rural areas and less privileged backgrounds, the Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday decided to extend the 7.5% reservation already offered for students of state government schools in medical courses to all professional courses such as engineering, agriculture, fisheries, veterinary sciences, and law.

The previous AIADMK government had provided 7.5% quota for students of such schools in undergraduate medical courses last October.

The DMK government set up a commission on June 15 led by retired Chief Justice of Delhi high court, D Murugesan, to look into enrollment ratio of government school students in professional courses such as engineering. “Reports said that only a few students from government schools were being admitted to professional courses and the government wanted to reverse that trend,” the state had said explaining the reason for setting up the commission.

“Justice D Murugesan panel has recommended 10% preferential quota, but the cabinet decided to confine it to 7.5% on a par with NEET quota,” a source said on Wednesday. The NEET quota helped 435 government students get seats in medicine and dental courses last academic year.

Nod for bill on state OBC list

The Union Cabinet has cleared a Constitution amendment bill which seeks to give power to states and UTs to make their own OBC lists, sources said on Wednesday. The SC had dismissed plea seeking review of its verdict nullifying states’ quota powers. P8

‘Existing rule of reservation won’t be disturbed’

The sources said, “This quota will be applicable to all government seats in professional courses in the state.” The horizontal reservation will not disturb the existing rule of reservation. The cabinet led by chief minister M K Stalin has decided to introduce a bill in the upcoming budget session to implement the reservation.

While 40% of the students who pass out every year in TN are government school students, the commission found that only 6.4% were admitted to professional courses last year and it was no different in the previous years. On an average, only 2% of government school students got admitted to Anna University. The data was 5% for law colleges and 3% for veterinary science courses, sources privy to the commission’s report said.

The commission found that there was a lack of awareness among rural households about professional courses and their economic condition was the foremost reason for this. Most of the parents also preferred government schools over private schools due to exorbitant fee. “It has been found that illiteracy in rural areas resulted in student dropouts, especially among girls. Many could not complete higher secondary-level education and have taken up jobs for survival. The commission has recommended a preferential quota to uplift the students from rural background who are unable to compete with students from urban areas,” the source said.