The State government must establish its own residential school system for students from rural areas akin to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) schools run by the Central government, urged V. Eswaran, the coordinator of Coimbatore-based Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam.
In a statement addressed to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, he said that the Tamil Nadu government had not allowed the opening of any JNV schools since 1986 as these schools followed a three-language policy instead of the State’s two-language policy. Noting that 625 JNV schools were currently functioning across India, Mr. Eswaran said that 75% of the students in these residential schools were from rural areas and over 40% from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
A large number of students from JNV schools from humble backgrounds were entering Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology and All India Institutes of Medical Sciences. But most of the rural students in Tamil Nadu studying in government schools failed to qualify to enter these higher education institutions, he pointed out.
The State government must establish these ‘Arignar Anna Residential Schools’ in all the 38 districts and enrol government school students based on their Class V marks. “By appointing qualified teachers, these schools can send more students to world-class educational institutions than Navodaya schools,” Mr. Eswaran said.
