Tamil Nadu Universities to Follow 69% Reservation Quota During Admission: State Education Minister

Tamil Nadu’s Higher Education Minister, K Ponmudy has instructed all universities in the state to follow the 69 per cent reservation policy during admission in the upcoming academic year. The minister’s statement comes at a time when certain universities in Tamil Nadu including Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) announced the implementation of a 10 per cent quota for candidates belonging to economically weaker section (EWS) in addition to a 49.5 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in certain courses funded by the central government, reported a leading news daily.

Unlike the central government, Tamil Nadu follows a 69 per cent reservation policy guaranteeing 26.5 per cent seats to Backward Classes, 20 per cent to Most Backward Classes/Denotified Communities, 3.5 per cent to Backward Classes Muslim, 18 per cent to Scheduled Castes and 1 per cent to Schedule Tribes, in educational institutes and jobs of the state government.

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“Some universities follow the Centre’s reservation system because they are getting central funds,” he said while adding that MKU needs to follow the state’s reservation policy as it’s completely under the control of the Tamil Nadu government.

Ponmudy added that an official circular will also be issued soon.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu had opposed the implementation of the central government’s New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and appointed a committee to draft the state’s education policy.

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Tamil Nadu government has also been opposing the national level medical entrance exam, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), claiming that it’s an injustice for students coming from the economically weaker sections. The state government also set up an expert panel to look into the social and economic implications of the common entrance exam. The committee in its report claimed that students who have been enrolled in MBBS courses via NEET have performed poorly than those enrolled based on class 12 marks.

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