TN govt told to exempt students with disability from paying application, tuition fee in govt-run institutions
The recommendations stated that if the admission is through online mode, the exempted fees shall not be collected and necessary IT provisions be made in the portal.
Disabled students
CHENNAI: The Court of the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Tamil Nadu, has given final recommendations to the Directorates of Higher Education, Technical Education, Legal Studies Universities etc., to exempt application fee, admission fee and tuition fee for the students with disabilities studying in higher education.
These institutions to have instructed on the fee exemption allowed to disabled students in the application form, online and offline.
The recommendations stated that if the admission is through online mode, the exempted fees shall not be collected and necessary IT provisions be made in the portal. Similar method shall be followed for examination fee as well.
As many as 23 higher education institutions (HEIs) have also been asked to issue suitable instructions in this regard by the directorates under its administrative control or by the varsities to the affiliated institutions. The recommendations have been made based on the complaints of the Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers and College Students and Graduates Association of the Blind.
The secretary of the department has also asked the government and government-aided higher education institutions to implement 5% reservation to disabled students.
The order from the department secretary stated that as per Section 32 of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, it was mandatory for all government institutions of higher education and other higher education institutions receiving aid from the government to reserve not less than 5% seats for persons with benchmark disabilities. It also stated that they would be given an upper-age relaxation of 5 years for admission in HEIs.
The letter was issued to government HEIs stating that any institution receiving financial aid from the Union or State government in the form of cash or kind such as lands at concessional rate must provide 5% reservation of seats in their institutions to disabled students.