TN assembly passes resolution against CUET as BJP walks out

Chennai, April 11 The Tamil Nadu legislative assembly adopted a resolution moved by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday calling on the Union government to withdraw the proposal to conduct a Common University Entrance Test (CUET). The resolution was supported by all the political parties except the BJP.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had announced that admissions to all the courses including undergraduate programmes in all Central universities will be through the marks secured in a Common University Entrance Test (CUET).

The resolution adopted by the Tamil Nadu assembly said, "There is no doubt that the CUET like NEET will sideline the diverse school systems of education in the country and grossly undermine the overall development-oriented long term learning in schools and make students rely upon coaching institutions for improving their entrance examination scores."

The assembly resolution said that the people of Tamil Nadu felt that CUET would only favour further mushrooming of coaching centres and enforcing such an entrance examination along with regular schooling would lead to mental stress among the student community.

The legislative assembly also found that any entrance examination that was based on the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus will not provide an equal opportunity to all students who have studied in various boards and syllabi across the country.

The resolution said that the State Board Syllabus constituted 80 percent of the student community and these students hailed from marginalized sections. It said, "Hence an NCERT syllabus based entrance examination would place this deserving majority in a disadvantageous position in securing college admissions in Central universities."

Stalin said, "As this resolution reflects the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, on behalf of the 8.5 crore people of Tamil Nadu, I request the Union government to withdraw the CUET."

AIADMK legislator, N. Anbazhagan supported the resolution in the presence of the Leader of Opposition, Edappadi K. Palaniswami and deputy floor leader of opposition, O. Panneerselvam.

The legislator said that the late Chief Minister and AIADMK leader, J. Jayalalithaa too had always stood for protecting the rights of the states.

BJP floor leader Nainar Nagendran said that entrance examinations had been in place for admissions to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Tiruchi and National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchi for several years now and urged reconsidering the resolution.

Tamil Nadu assembly speaker, M. Appavu later announced that the resolution was adopted 'unanimously' in the 234 member House after the BJP walkout.

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