Admissions: Consensus the only way out, says Oommen Chandy

Admissions: Consensus the only way out, says Oommen Chandy

Do not act in haste on self-financing colleges issue

Kootayam: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy on Sunday called upon the State Government not to go ahead with the formalities for admission to professional colleges for the coming academic year in haste, as it would only compound the already existing complexities.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Sunday, Mr. Chandy said the need of the hour was to arrive at consensus.

Expressing confidence that a solution was possible within the legal framework for the self-financing professional colleges issue. Mr. Chandy said that Government should take more realistic and pragmatic approach.

“At present they are trying to implement stipulations which they themselves are not able to implement in government-run professional colleges,” Mr. Chandy said. “First of all they have to accept self-financing institutions as a reality. Only then would they be able to formulate a realistic approach to the whole gamut of issues involved.”

Asked whether a legal remedy would be better (than consensus) so that any single management would not be able to upset the applecart once a consensus was reached, Mr. Chandy said the issue of social justice was not negotiable.

“The present situation [following the High Court judgment where the managements have total sway over 100 per cent seats] is not acceptable in Kerala’s peculiar social reality,” Mr. Chandy said.

He said the United Democratic Front was still confident of implementing the 50:50 concept where the 50 per cent Government seats at Government fee structure, which was almost free education, would ensure social justice and 50 per cent seats with the managements, under certain conditions, would ensure the viable functioning of these institutions.

3 categories

To have a realistic approach, all issues had to be grouped under the different categories, according to Mr. Chandy’s proposal.

The first category would be the medical colleges. “They would have no problem in implementing the proposal. Here 50 percent of the admissions would be from Government merit list.”

Engineering colleges

The second category would be engineering colleges. Given the ground realities, the majority of the managements would have problem in accepting the scholarship scheme for the 50 percent Government seats.

The third category was the nursing colleges where almost all the students were from lower income or middle-income groups.

Admissions: Consensus the only way out, says Oommen Chandy

Related Web Pages

Admissions Consensus only way out |  Self-financing Professional Colleges |  Engineering colleges |  High Court Judgment | 

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