Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi didn’t mince words against the M.K. Stalin-led government in his Republic Day address and charged state-run universities are in dire financial crisis. He said they even lack “money to recruit teachers”. Ravi also charged high school students are incapable of reading class 2 textbooks.
Lashing out at the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in the state, Ravi said, “About 25 lakh students are enrolled in our 20 state Universities. Most of the Universities are starved of funds. They are in dire financial crisis not even able to pay salaries to the teachers.” The governor, who is also chancellor of the universities in the state said over 50 per cent of teaching posts are vacant in higher education institutions. “In Madras University, which used to be our nation’s pride, 66 pc teachers’ posts are vacant,” he charged. The governor said due to lack of funds, some universities have even started filing Income Tax returns “declaring themselves non-state University”.
Ravi charged that 10 universities are run without a registrar and controller of examination for several years. “Autonomy of Universities have been severely eroded to such an extent that it is not the University syndicates but the State Secretariat runs them,” he alleged. “Not allowing the appointment of vice-chancellors on untenable concocted flimsy grounds is a devious way to erode the autonomy of the University through back door,” the governor accused.
The governor’s accusations come as the Supreme Court is set to hear the Tamil Nadu government’s plea against him regarding the appointment of vice-chancellors. The Court had orally directed the governor and state government to resolve the issue, else, it would intervene during the next hearing.
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Governor said the situation in schools is neither better. “The Annual Status of Education Reports for the last some years on the status of learning in our Government schools reveal a very disturbing truth. About 75 pc of our high school students in Government schools cannot read even second standard textbooks nor can they recognise all the two-digit numbers between 11 and 99,” Ravi said.
Ravi alleged Dalits in the state are facing social discrimination. “They are not allowed to walk the village streets wearing their footwear, they are denied access to public spaces. When some among them dares to challenge the discrimination, they are brutally assaulted, 8 urinated upon and at times even killed,” he charged in his address. The governor said, “An elected Dalit Panchayat President is not allowed to function and not even allowed to sit in the chair during official meetings. Crimes against Dalits especially sexual assaults on Dalit women are steadily increasing in Tamil Nadu. On the one hand heinous crimes against Dalits are increasing, on the other justice is denied to the victims.”