'Make more seats available to tribal students at govt colleges': CPM leader Shanmugham urges Tamil Nadu govt

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Tribals Association vice president and CPM central committee member P Shanmugham has urged Chief Minister MK Stalin to make available an adequate number of seats under reservation for students from tribal communities to pursue higher education at government arts and science colleges.

"In the Class 12 board exams held this year, 1171 candidates out of the 1245 students who had passed the examinations were from government-run boarding schools. Eight such schools achieved a 100 percent pass rate. Apart from this, taking into account the students who have passed from government schools and private schools, there is an opportunity for more students to pursue higher education. But there are only 1,200 seats reserved for tribal students in Tamil Nadu government arts and science colleges. Only if there are more than 50 seats in any course, can a seat be made available to a tribal student. A tribal student cannot get admission to courses having less than 50 seats, under reservation, " he said in a letter to the chief minister.

Shanmugham said that it was necessary to fill up the total number of seats reserved for tribal students at the state-level, based on seat reservation. "For that, I request the government to take the necessary steps to create an opportunity for more tribal students to enrol in degree courses by giving more seats to colleges that receive more applications from tribal students and also to colleges that do not receive enough applications from tribal students," he urged.

The leader also said that demand for seats for tribal students has increased in Salem, Thiruvannamalai, Nilgiris, Dharmapuri, Kallakurichi, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Vellore, Tirupattur, Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur districts.