Tamil Nadu sets 7.5% reservation quota for govt. school students in professional courses

Tamil Nadu Cheif Minister MK Stalin on Thursday added a bill in the State Assembly to provide 7.5% reservation to government schools goers. This would help the students with admission in professional courses like law, engineering, veterinary sciences, fisheries and agricultural course. The govt. school students will be able to use this opportunity in universities, private colleges and also government-aided institutes.

What ideologies helped introduce the bill?

Retd. Justice D Murugesan and his committee had recommended the Stalin led Tamil Nadu Cabinet to table the bill. The matter that had been raised would address the issue of fewer government students getting into professional courses. CM Stalin while quoting data from the past few years that showed a declining trend of government students in professional colleges said, "Government students competing with private students are struggling to get higher education of their choice." He further stated that the government had revised this and was introducing a 7.5% reservation in this case. 
This introduced bill was similar to the 7.5% internal reservation passed last year for undergraduate medical admission. The committee by Retd. Justice D Murugesan had recommended the government to provide not less than 10% reservation to students of the government schools for admission to professional courses. However the Stalin govt. was bound to implement just 7.5% considering various other social and economic factors. 

Stalin govt. to take 'affirmative actions to bring real equality

The statement regarding the bill read, "The Government had decided to take affirmative actions so as to bring about real equality between government school students and private school students. This would be done by setting apart a certain percentage of seats on a preferential basis. The Bill seeks to give effect to the above decision.

Supporting the Bill, Opposition leader in the Tamil Nadu Assembly and former Chief Minister K Palaniswami welcomed the government's move. The Bill is likely to be passed unanimously in the assembly. Last year, the AIADMK government had introduced a 7.5% horizontal reservation to government school students who cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate medical courses including MBBS.

Image Credits - PTI