Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced that the state government will bear the education expenses of government school students who join engineering courses with 7.5% horizontal reservation. The education expenses that will be taken by the government will include counselling, hostel and college fees, the CM said during an event in Chennai on Monday, September 20. The education expenses that will be taken by the government will include counselling, hostel and college fees, the CM said. And as part of the announcement, 50 government school students were given admission orders under the 7.5% horizontal reservation.
Speaking at the event after distributing the admission orders to the students, CM Stalin said this is a step taken by the government to fulfil engineering dreams of several parents and government school students in Tamil Nadu. “There might have been several government school students who were doubtful of securing engineering seats. Hence such a step was taken to fulfil that dream. The DMK government’s motive is to get every student educated and aid them with a job according to their qualification,” said Stalin.
Speaking further, Stalin said that it is imperative that students studying in government schools in rural areas should pursue higher education at premium institutions in cities. For this, the DMK regime over the years while in office has implemented a slew of schemes, he said.
“The late CM K Karunanidhi had noted that government school students studying in rural Tamil Nadu face great difficulty in clearing entrance exams for joining engineering and medical courses. Because of this, we had to take measures to scrap NEET to uphold social justice,” explained Stalin.
Explaining the 7.5% reservation, CM Stalin said that currently 69% of students studying in government schools are from rural Tamil Nadu. “Hence through the 7.5%, more students can join Medical, Law, Engineering and other courses. Students of government and government-run schools from classes 6 to 12 will benefit due to the reservation,” said Stalin.
In the current academic year, about 10,000 government school students will benefit due to reservation and about 350 students can avail professional courses, the CM said.