TN’s GER great, but fares poor in edu outcomes, Guv Ravi’s tirade
The gubernatorial head claimed that many varsities are functioning with less than 50% of teachers’ strength. “Universities have no money to recruit teachers.
CHENNAI: In what appears to be a never-ending tit-for-tat, Governor RN Ravi has responded to the State government on a recent statement over the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of Higher Educational Institutes (HEI) of Tamil Nadu.
Stating that it was a matter of great satisfaction that with respect to Gross Enrolment Ratio, in which the State is among the top few States, he said, “However, in terms of learning outcome of students, especially in schools, it is among the bottom few States.”
“About 75% of our high school students in government schools cannot read even second standard textbooks nor can they recognise all the two-digit numbers between 11 and 99,” he said. As government schools cater largely to the economically poor, a steep decline in standards of learning in government schools further jeopardises the future of marginalised sections, he claimed. “This leads to long-term social and economic injustice to the underprivileged sections of the society,” the Governor said in a statement issued after sharing greetings with the public ahead of the 76th Republic Day.
Claiming that the Higher Education scenario is no better, he said about 25 lakh students are enrolled in our 20 State universities which are starved of funds. “They (universities) are in a dire financial crisis and are not even able to pay salaries to the teachers. They have not received their due shares of funds from the State government for the last few years,” the Governor said in a direct attack on the State government.
The gubernatorial head claimed that many varsities are functioning with less than 50% of teachers’ strength. “Universities have no money to recruit teachers. In Madras University, which used to be our nation’s pride, 66% of teachers’ posts are lying vacant. Due to continuous non-receipt of government funds, some universities have begun filing their Income Tax returns declaring themselves non-state University,” he claimed.
Governor Ravi went on to state that ten universities were without a Registrar and Controller of Examination for several years. “They are being run on an ad-hoc basis, and the autonomy of universities has been severely eroded to such an extent that it is not the syndicates but the State secretariat which runs them,” he added in his veiled tirade against the DMK government.
The governor has also expressed serious concern over what he termed as an increasing menace of illicit drugs in and around the campuses. He claimed that “there are reports of powerful drug syndicates linked with international drug cartels operating in the State”.
The governor claimed that Tamil Nadu has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. Governor RN Ravi said that as the national average is 12 suicides per one lakh population, in Tamil Nadu, it is more than 26 suicides per one lakh population.” Meanwhile, the TN government had issued a strong rejoinder to the statements of Raj Bhavan.