AUT expresses shock over referring aided colleges conversion issue to high-level

[sajiv]

AUT expresses shock over referring aided colleges conversion issue to high-level committee

TIRUCHI: The Association of University Teachers (AUT) has expressed deep shock over the Higher Education Minister's act of referring the issue of conversion of government and aided colleges into universities to a high-level committee comprising officials of Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) and former Vice-Chancellors.
"Rude shock"

At a time when a 'Select Committee' of the Legislature is seized of the issue of converting two aided colleges, one each in Coimbatore and Madurai, into private universities, the announcement made by the minister at a recent meeting on the conversion of government colleges was a "rude shock," P. Jayagandhi, AUT state president, said in a statement issued here.

Urging the minister to drop the move, the statement recalled the heated debate the bills seeking conversion of the two aided colleges into universities generated in the Assembly last year, to question the rationale behind formation of the high-level committee.

The 'Select Committee' was formed after the debate during which it was said that government's abdication of its responsibility to private entrepreneurs will cause misery and hardship to students, teachers and public, Professor Jayagandhi said, and referred to the hundreds of representations made by teachers and students at the sittings of the committee at Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai.'

The government had also extended the tenure of the committee by six more months and its report is awaited in the Assembly.
Discussion sought

He said the AUT was unable to comprehend why the government does not invite teachers and principals of aided colleges for the recent meeting for discussion on the matter.

Taking strong exception to the move, Professor Jayagandhi appealed to the minister to delink aided colleges from the purview of the High Level Committee in the best interests of the public and the institutions themselves in particular.

"It is unfortunate that the present government which has brought about the fee waiver in colleges and strengthened public funded education by starting second shift in Government Colleges, opening up new Government Colleges of Arts and Science, engineering and medicine, should embark upon privatisation of aided institutions," the statement said.