Professional edu: Tamil Nadu Govt mulls 2.5 pc quota for aided school students

Starting this academic year, government school students who enrolled for medical and other professional courses would get admissions in the separate 7.5 per cent quota, against the recommendation of 10 per cent.

While a 10 per cent quota was recommended, only 7.5 per cent was approved. So a panel suggested that the balance of 2.5 per cent might be considered for government-aided institutions, an official from School Education Department said.

“The initial move to provide horizontal quota for government-aided school students came after several requests from academicians and students,” he added.

The official pointed out that the committee, which was constituted earlier for the recommendation of reservation for government school students, would look into all the pros and cons, including deriving the percentage of quota that might be given to the students in aided schools. “It (panel) is likely to frame separate guidelines in this regard,” he added.

Assembly Speaker and senior DMK leader M Appavu had also urged the government to consider providing reservations to government-aided school students also.

TN Teachers’ Association president PK Ilamaran also pointed out that only a few schools in the cities, which have the government-aided status, are rich. “Keeping this in mind, we can’t generalise the schools that are functioning in rural areas. The quota will largely benefit the students, who still pay lesser fees due to their poor economic family background in the aided schools.”