Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan has appealed to the Centre to provide question papers in Tamil, allocate additional examination centres in Tamil Nadu and reduce examination fee under the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) scheme.
In a memorandum addressed to Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Jitendra Singh, he said the scheme was designed to encourage students having scientific temper by providing fellowships and grant to pursue higher education and take up research. The changes suggested would make the scheme more purposeful.
While most of the students would be studying class 10 and higher secondary education with regional languages as medium of instruction, KVPY question papers were set in English and Hindi only.
“It is inherently biased against students having a regional language as medium instruction. Naturally, it would affect students belonging to the oppressed sections in large numbers by keeping them out of the fray in the initial round itself. I strongly feel that language has nothing to do with scientific temper,” the CPI (M) MP said.
He wanted the Centre to include all regional languages for setting question papers.
With Tamil Nadu being a big State, the number of examination centres should be increased beyond the nine centres now. Similarly, the fee for the examination had been fixed at ₹1,250 for general candidates and ₹625 for SC/ST category and the disabled.
Apart from this, candidates had to bear transport charges, food expenses and lodging if the centre was outside their town. The higher fee was a deterrent for students belonging to poor families to avail the benefit, he said.
