Expert committee to recommend an internal reservation for government school students in professional courses

The previous AIADMK government had provided 7.5% horizontal reservation on a priority basis for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) qualified students from government schools in the MBBS admissions in the State after it was recommended by a commission headed by retired High Court judge P Kalaiyarasan. Accordingly, a bill was passed in this regard in the State assembly. 

Similarly, the new DMK government too formed a panel led by retired and former Delhi High Court judge D Murugesan to improve the representation of State government school students in the admission to professional courses such as engineering, polytechnic, law, agriculture, veterinary and fisheries, and among others. 

The government decision to constitute a committee came against the backdrop of reports that in the technical agriculture, veterinary, fisheries, and in law admissions for the last few years, only less number of government school students are getting admissions to state quota seats in universities, reputed self-financing colleges and state-run colleges. 

A senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity said, "the expert committee had already conducted three review meetings to come out with a reservation formula". 

"The committee had examined the issues related to socio-economic conditions of the students studying in the government Schools, disadvantage suffered by such students and their past enrolment in various categories of professional courses and educational institutions", he said. 

The official also pointed out that the panel also took into consideration of various feedback and suggestion from other stakeholders across the state. 

Claiming that the panel, also comprising experts from various government departments and universities as members, is in the process of compiling the data, the official said "the report is expected to submit to the state government within two weeks". 

"As the admissions to the professional courses were expected to start after July 31 as per the government order", he said adding "the government is very keen to introduce the horizontal reservation for the students to join professional courses (other than medicine) as soon as possible".