Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai on Friday joined issue with State Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy for asking the Prime Minister to support the higher education sector in the State at the 42nd convocation of Anna University.
He said the State government must focus on quality education rather than adding up numbers. In a statement, Mr. Annamalai alleged that the DMK indulged in politicking even at a convocation ceremony. He said while it was true that the enrolment ratio for higher education in Tamil Nadu was higher than that of other States, the trend was seen not only since 1967 but “for thousands of years when our forefathers had been an example in literacy”. Mr. Annamalai claimed Mr. Ponmudy had hidden the fact that the number of students enrolling in engineering courses had been falling over the years, and the number of those passing out, too, had been reducing. He said that in 2016, 1.65 lakh students had passed out, but in 2020, only 85,747 did. The Central government had given ₹6,664 crore in the last four years to Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha scheme, he said.
