The Justice D. Murugesan Committee constituted to draft a distinct State Education Policy has, in its report to the Tamil Nadu government, recommended against conducting entrance examination of any kind for admission to all higher education courses, according to informed sources.
It has said the consolidated marks obtained both in Class XI and Class XII board examinations should be the basis for admission to all courses in higher education. The Tamil Nadu government may take appropriate measures to ensure that the subject ‘Education’ was brought back in List II (State List) of Schedule 7 of the Constitution of India, the panel recommended.
Justice Murugesan, along with other committee members, submitted the report to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at the Secretariat here on Monday. The government has not made the report or its salient features public.
Sources told The Hindu that the need to regulate deemed-to-be universities, autonomous colleges, proposed foreign universities, and self-funding institutions, “banning” coaching classes, more State investment into education, were among the key suggestions that figured in the report.
The panel recommended “banning” coaching centres run parallelly to schools/colleges by individuals/corporate companies in Tamil Nadu either physically and virtually, including private tuition centres. Since coaching centres and private institutions advertised treating education as a commodity, “schools and colleges may become redundant, if proper action is not taken against such nefarious practices.”
As these coaching centres do not come under the purview of any regulatory body of the government, “this is for immediate attention for the government to act on by creating a regulatory body with appropriate powers,” it said. The Committee has recommended strict implementation of the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Collection of Capitation Fee) Act, 1992 to ban the collection of capitation fee by private educational institutions.
“Insufficient funding by the State to public institutions is one of the main reasons for the mushrooming of private institutions, both in school education and higher education. Necessary funding by the State to public institutions should be provided,” it said.
It has recommended the qualified teacher-student ratio to be 1:15 for postgraduate (PG) and 1:25 for undergraduate (UG) programmes. While it recommended the continuation of three-year UG and two-year PG programmes, it has suggested for an additional option of a four-year bachelor’s (Honours with research). The panel was for amending the Tamil Nadu Private Universities Act, 2019, to declare the academic standards in terms of curriculum design, admission process, filing of annual returns, among others. The Act should have a provision to regulate proposed foreign universities in Tamil Nadu, it said.
Regulations could aim at “stalling” instituting of foreign universities in the State, it said, and pointed to exchange programmes of State universities and colleges with foreign ones. It also called for enacting a comprehensive legislation to regulate all private colleges of all streams of education in the light of the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976.
Strengthening institutions
The Committee, headed by former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court D. Murugesan and comprising a broad spectrum of experts in academics, sports, and music, was established in April 2022
“There is a need to bring all private higher educational institutions under the ambit of a single Act irrespective of discipline. This will help institute a single process of regulation for all higher educational institutions,” it said.
The panel also called for amendments in the 1976 Act to streamline the collection of fees for arts and science courses run by private management. “The State shall evolve a method to curtail corporates and other non-educational bodies offering courses and awarding degrees,”
Noting that government participation in higher education was waning while private participation was increasing in professional courses such as engineering, technical, and medicine, the panel said it needed “to be controlled” in order to promote students hailing from underprivileged communities. Education was meant for all sections of society, as per the policy of the government on social justice.
The panel also favoured more investment in higher education by the government and the establishment of new comprehensive institutions throughout the State. “Self-funded institutions should be strictly regulated on the issues related to student fee, admissions, following rule of reservation, fund mobilisation, granting, endowment funds, financial management, and financial monitoring, so that private higher education is made affordable.”
Private universities offered market-driven subjects with less focus on traditional subjects, it said, and added that this trend was “suicidal” for the growth and expansion of higher educational institutions. “Thus, the focus on education becomes secondary but commoditisation of education for making profit becomes primary” and hence the issue was to be addressed by the government.
