Chennai

Justifying the 7.5% reservation to government school students in admission to professional courses on preferential basis, Ponmudi, replying to the debate on demand for grants for his department, said only 0.83% of students admitted to Anna University in 2020-21 were from government schools. Pointing out that the volume of students in engineering, veterinary, fisheries, law and agriculture colleges from the government schools was only 6.14%, 3%, 3.7%, 3.3% and 6.79%, respectively, he reasoned that the 7.5% reservation for government schools students in professional courses was aimed at increasing the enrolment of government school students in non-medical courses like engineering.