The Association of University Teachers (AUT), Tamil Nadu, during a convention on minority institutions, unanimously resolved to urge the Central government to withdraw the draft National Policy on Education (NPE) 2016.
The association said that the policy attempted to drastically transform the education sphere to sub-serve the interests of the global market, centralise everything, thereby sabotaging the federal status of the polity, proposes cultural hegemony and endangers the educational prospects of the weaker sections of society at large.
The AUT, Tamil Nadu, recently organised a convention on ‘The changing profile of the minority institutions and their polemic against the community vis-à-vis the official polity and plight of the employees’ in Vellore.
They resolved to urge the principals of minority colleges – aided and self-financing – to forward the scholarship applications of eligible minority community students to the competent district officers in time to enable the students to avail the scholarship.
The convention resolved to urge the State government to open separate hostels for men and women — one each for college and high school students — belonging to minority communities in the district headquarters.
They wanted training centres/coaching centres to be opened in each district to help aspirants belonging to the minority communities to appear for civil services, group I, II, III and IV of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission competitive examinations.
The convention resolved to urge the State government to utilise the Central grantfor the welfare of minority communities.
For students of Tamil-medium, the AUT convention urged the government to grant parallel aided programmes in Tamil medium to facilitate continuum with the school curriculum in colleges without the need for empowering them to pursue higher education through English medium.
