Date:11/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/11/stories/2006111114940400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ensure free seats for poor students in private colleges: SFI

Staff Reporter

Students' body demands national commission on education

STUDENTS' MARCH: Members of the Students Federation of India at Tarmbaram as part of their countrywide `jatha' demanding better educational opportunities for the poor. — PHOTO: A. Muralitharan.

TAMBARAM : The State Government's directions to private educational institutions on reserving seats for the backward classes was not enough and they must be made to reserve free seats for the poor, according to K.K. Ragesh, general secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI).

He was speaking at Pallavaram on Friday where members of the organisation gathered to welcome an `All India Jatha' team, campaigning to collect one crore signatures from students to urge the Union Government to implement its promises on education.

Mr. Ragesh said considering the exorbitant fees collected by self-financing colleges and the private universities, only reservation of free seats could ensure that poor youth have access to education in such institutions.

One of the SFI's important demands of the Central government after the conclusion of the All India Jatha would be the constitution of a National Commission on Education comprising academicians. Recalling that such a Commission was constituted in the 1960s, Mr. Ragesh said the NEC should draw up a blueprint on universal education and regulation of fees in private institutions and based on their recommendations, policies should be implemented.

Education quality was already dipping due to privatisation, he said, adding that the situation would get out of control if foreign direct investment was allowed in education. While one of the Jatha teams was covering North India and other regions after leaving Shimla, the present team left Bangalore on November 4. After traversing Tamil Nadu, it would cover Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka before terminating at Thiruvananthapuram on December 13.

Police detain vehicle:

Traffic policemen on the Grand Southern Trunk Road detained SFI vehicles for some time at Tambaram Sanatorium and Chromepet. They asked the drivers to park vehicles on the roadside and switch off the engine. SFI members had a tough time convincing traffic policemen.

G. Selva, State president of the SFI, said that only in Chennai they were treated like this.