Centre using education to push its ‘regressive’ views, alleges MK Stalin at vice-chancellors’ meet

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Addressing a conference of vice-chancellors (V-Cs) of universities in the country’s southern states, Stalin said the people of Tamil Nadu want the universities in the state to function as per its own education policy. The V-C’s “shall keep it in mind and act accordingly”, he said.

Asserting that all the universities in Tamil Nadu functioned by “encouraging facts backed by rational and scientific methods,” the Chief Minister said he was proud his state excels in higher education

“In the national institutional ranking framework of 2020-21, 19 universities and 33 colleges from Tamil Nadu are in the first 100 ranks… The national average of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 27.1%, while Tamil Nadu’s is as high as 51.4%,” Stalin said.

Assisting the state’s growth in education, he said, are 1,553 colleges, 52 government and private universities, besides 1,096 industrial training institutions.

“We have provided 7.5% reservation for government school students in professional and medical courses to help those from humble backgrounds to reach greater heights. Former CM Kalaignar (late M Karunanidhi) abolished entrance exams, which acted as a hindrance to professional courses and helped those from humble backgrounds to reach greater heights,” he said.

Calling the people of Tamil Nadu “descendants of the Dravidian movement”, Stalin said the key motives of the state’s people are to eradicate slavery and to empower women.

“Tamil Nadu is leading in the education for women by opening many women’s colleges, by (offering) fee assistance for women in UG, PG and doctoral courses, and holding training programmes for women to attend competitive exams,” Stalin said.

The Chief Minister also said the state has allotted Rs 5,369 crore for higher education and taken several steps to bring higher education to rural areas and help institutions get NAAC accreditation.

“Approval has been given to teach UG engineering courses in Tamil in four colleges, and Rs 20 crore was allotted to translate engineering textbooks into Tamil,” he said.