Only 2 Tamil Nadu govt school students get B Arch admission under 7.5 pc quota

The much-hyped government school quota of 7.5% did not serve the purpose in B Arch admissions with merely two students from Tamil Nadu government run institutions getting the seats.

Even in BE and BTech admissions, only about 7,400 government school students, got the admissions against the available quota of more than 15,000.

The online admissions to B Arch courses started on October 25 with the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) have received 3,015 applications.

However, additional Director of Higher Education Department and Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2021 (TNEA 2021) for the BArch course, in-charge Dr T Purushothaman told DT NEXT said of the total registration only 1,155 candidates were eligible, and accordingly the rank list was prepared.

He also said of the total applications received, the number of eligible candidates under the government school quota was just three. "Of which only two candidates were allocated seats".

Going by the calculation, of the total B Arch seats 1,875 available in as many as 47 colleges, the number of seats through government school quota of 7.5% would be 140.

With only two students who studied in the Tamil Nadu government run schools getting the seats, the total number of vacancies under government school reservation will be 138. Accordingly, 98% of seats will remain vacant.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department said lack of awareness with regard to 7.5% reservation among the students especially those who studied in government schools in rural areas was the main reason to get less number of applications.

He also pointed out that the online admissions process for both Engineering and B.Arch will be improved to attract government school students to avail themselves of the full quota meant for them.

According to the data available with DOTE, even not many students from other special categories such as eminent sportspersons, wards of ex-servicemen, and differently-abled persons got the BArch seats.

The data further said only six eminent sportspersons have got the seats and similarly, only one seat was allotted to the award of ex-servicemen and just two differently-abled persons got the B.Arch admissions.

TNEA 2021 for the BArch course is a completely online process that includes registration, payments, choice filling, allotment, and confirmation.