The Justice D. Murugesan Commission, constituted by the Tamil Nadu government to examine the socio-economic conditions of government school students, has recommended that they be given “preferential treatment” in admission to government quota seats in professional courses (other than medicine).
The retired judge of the Delhi High Court submitted an 84-page report to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Tuesday in the presence of Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi, Chief Secretary V. Irai Anbu and senior officials.
A source privy to the report told The Hindu, “The Commission has recommended preferential treatment to State government school students in professional courses... without affecting the reservation scheme in place.” It favoured earmarking a certain percentage of government quota seats at self-financing professional colleges for these students.
“The report has presented the options available before the State government to implement its recommendations. One of the options is to go in for an executive order,” the source said.
Low admission rate
The report discussed how only about 2% of government school students were being admitted to Anna University and less than 10% to State-run engineering colleges. Their admission to other universities was only 5%-6%, and in the case of law colleges, it was further low, it pointed out. It studied data on these students provided by the Chief Educational Officers.
The report also discussed how students from rural areas and the downtrodden sections were dependent on State-run schools and highlighted the need to improve them.
It recommended measures to improve government schools by incorporating technology.
