The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Monday “unanimously” adopted a resolution urging the Union government to withdraw the proposal of conducting of Common University Entrance Test (CUET). All politicial parties except the BJP supported the resolution moved by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
The University Grants Commission had announced that the admissions for various courses, including under-graduate programmess in all Central universities [funded by it] would be held only on the basis of the CUET scores from the academic year 2022-2023.
“There is no doubt that this CUET, like NEET, will sideline the diverse school education systems across the country, grossly undermine the relevance of overall development-oriented long-form learning in schools and make students rely upon coaching centres for improving their entrance examinations scores,” the resolution said.
The Assembly resolution said the people of Tamil Nadu felt the CUET would only favour further mushrooming of coaching centres and enforcing such an entrance examination along with regular schooling would lead to mental stress among student community.
The House felt that any entrance examination that was based on National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus would not provide an equal opportunity to all students who have studied in varied State Board syllabi across the country. In most States, State Board syllabus constituted more than 80% of the total student population and these students invariably hailed from the marginalised sections. “Hence an NCERT syllabus-based entrance examination would place this deserving majority in a disadvantageous position in securing admission in Central universities,” it said.
In Tamil Nadu’s context, this was likely to drastically reduce the number of students from the State in various Central universities and their affiliated colleges, according to the resolution. “As this resolution reflects the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, on behalf of the 8.5 crore people of Tamil Nadu, I request the Union government to withdraw the CUET,” Mr. Stalin said.
AIADMK legislator and former Minister K.P. Anbalagan supported the resolution on his party’s behalf in the presence of Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K. Palaniswami and party’s deputy floor leader O. Panneerselvam. Mr. Anbalagan (Palacode) said late AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa too had always stood for protecting the rights of the States.
Congress floor leader K. Selvaperunthagai (Sriperumbudur), PMK floor leader G.K. Mani (Pennagaram), VCK floor leader M. Sinthanai Selvan (Kattumannarkoil), Communist Party of India’s M. Chinnadurai (Gandharvakottai), Communist Party of India’s T. Ramachandran (Thalli), Papanasam MLA M.H. Jawahirullah, Tiruchengodu MLA E.R. Eswaran, Vasudevanallur MLA T. Sathan Thirumalai Kumar and Panruti MLA T. Velmurugan also spoke in support of the resolution.
BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendiran (Tirunelveli) said entrance exams had been in place for admissions into the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Indian Institute of Management in Tiruchi and National Institute of Technology in Tiruchi for several years now and urged for reconsidering the resolution. He later led his party members to stage a walk out. Following a voice-vote, Speaker M. Appavu declared that the resolution was adopted “unanimously” in the 234-member House. The resolution was moved “in order to exercise the rights of the State governments”.
