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Chennai, Oct 18 (IANS) Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) general secretary TTV Dhinakaran on Saturday strongly opposed the Tamil Nadu government’s move to amend the Private Universities Act, 2019, which enables conversion of government-aided and self-financed colleges into private universities.
In a statement, Dhinakaran said the amendment passed in the pretext of promoting higher education and student welfare will actually pave the way for complete privatization of government-aided colleges that have been functioning with public support for decades.
He cautioned that the changes would reduce government oversight over academic, administrative and financial matters.
According to him, once the amendment is implemented, the concept of aided education – in which students from marginalized and economically weaker backgrounds get government subsidies, free education and reservation benefits – will end.
“Students of government-aided colleges, who now enjoy tuition assistance, free education and social justice-based reservations, will lose all such benefits,” he said.
The AMMK leader said the change would result in an “unprecedented increase in tuition fees”, effectively making higher education inaccessible to large sections of society. Dhinakaran also warned that the move would have a serious impact on teachers and staff working in aided institutions.
“If the amendment is implemented, it will jeopardize job security, delay salary disbursement and eliminate reservation criteria in teacher recruitment,” he said.
He further said that many aided colleges were originally established by social reformers and philanthropists with noble, charitable objectives to provide affordable education to the underprivileged.
“Converting these institutions into commercial enterprises under the guise of private universities will destroy their basic spirit and purpose,” Dhinakaran said.
He urged the Tamil Nadu government and the Higher Education Department to immediately withdraw the amendment and called for maintaining the existing framework that ensures government participation, regulation and accountability in the state’s higher education sector.
Dhinakaran appealed to the state to reconsider the law in the larger interest of students and teachers, saying, “The government should protect the social justice-oriented foundation of Tamil Nadu’s higher education system rather than allowing commercialization through such amendments.”
–IANS
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