CHENNAI: The nightmare continues for aspirants of professional education in the State, with a majority of the unaided colleges on Friday rejecting a Government suggestion to surrender a certain percentage of seats to the Government's single window pool of seats.

Quoting the Supreme Court's August 2005 judgment in the Inaamdar Trust case, the management representatives contended that the colleges should be allowed to decide how many seats they should surrender.

Already, the issue of whether or not to hold the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE) is under litigation. Now it looks like admission to the management quota in professional courses may also be running into rough weather.

Unpublicised meeting

The Government had hurriedly summoned Friday's unpublicised meeting at the Directorate of Technical Education office in Chennai. Representatives of about 40 colleges attended.

According to some participants, Director of Technical Education (DTE) Jatindranath Swain, in his opening remarks, spelt out two points: the Government was keen that the managements need not conduct any separate common entrance test. Instead they could use the Government rank list for admissions. The idea was to reduce students' burden. Secondly, the government wanted the colleges to surrender half their intake strength to the single window pool.

Managements' stand

The managements opposed both suggestions citing the Supreme Court judgment.

They insisted on a separate entrance test for the management quota and, if necessary, more than one test, depending on when education boards of other States publish the results. The DTE said he would convey their position to the Government.

What worries parents and some managements is the stance adopted by many private colleges.

They say the Supreme Court had clearly spelt out how the management quota seats should be filled. As per the Inaamdar Trust case judgment, all admissions to unaided colleges had to be done only on the basis of a CET and single window admission mode.

Three points

The Supreme Court had highlighted three key points in admissions, namely that they should be accessible, (inter se) merit-based and non-exploitative. Answering a question on the mode of admissions, the Bench had said that the holding a CET, followed by centralised counselling or single window system for regulating admissions, did not dent the managements' right to admit students of their choice.

As 15 per cent of the seats in the private colleges can be allotted for NRI quota, long-time watchers of educational trends say Tamil Nadu can deregulate admissions under this quota. The colleges can generate justifiable surplus to develop the institutions. They feel the Government should have decided and spelt out its admissions policy for all types of seats last year itself. The delay is costing students and parents dearly.

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