A voluntary organisation called upon Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to improve the standard of education of students of schools being run by the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department.
Pointing out that there were about 1 lakh students in 1,100 schools, the People’s Educational Trust - Dr. Ambedkar Academy, in a representation submitted to the Chief Minister last week, stated that the standard of education of the schools was far from satisfactory, which was evident from the fact that hardly any student who studied in the schools had been able to secure admission to technical and professional courses.
Calling upon the government to increase dietary charges for student-inmates of the hostels run by the department from ₹1,100 for college students and ₹1,000 for school students to ₹3,500 and ₹3,000 respectively, the trust appealed to Mr. Stalin to see to it that the Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme covered students of institutions deemed to be universities.
Among the other suggestions mooted in the representation were the constitution of a State-level SC/ST Commission, the provision of cultivable land to landless agricultural labourers and those having uneconomic land holdings by purchasing private land and training by the Skill Development Corporation of Tamil Nadu to about 1.3 lakh technically-qualified SC candidates, who had registered themselves with employment exchanges.