The Hindu : Front Page : Church council lists out `offending clauses' in professional colleges Act

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Monday, Oct 16, 2006
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Church council lists out `offending clauses' in professional colleges Act

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Inter-Church Council for Education has written to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan seeking deletion of the provisions in the Kerala Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act relating to determination of minority status of private self-financing professional educational institutions and procedure for admissions.

The memorandum has been submitted, as desired by the Chief Minister during a meeting between the Cabinet Sub-Committee on the self-financing colleges and representatives of the Inter-Church Council for Education held here on September 20, by the Council chairman Archbishop Joseph Powathil.

In the written statement titled `Offending Clauses in the Self-Financing Colleges Act 2006,' the Council cites Sections 2 (1), 2 (m), 3, 8 (1) (b), 8 (1) (c) and 10 (8) as objectionable provisions.

It takes exception particularly to Section 2 (m) that defines minority professional college as an institution established and maintained by a minority and which fulfils the non-discriminatory criteria laid down in the Act determined as such by the Government and Section 8 (1) that enjoins that minority status will be conferred only in the event of (a) the population of the minority community that runs the professional college is less than 50 per cent of the population of the State, (b) the number of professional colleges run by the minority community in question is proportionately less than the number of professional colleges run by the non-minority communities in the State and (c) number of students who belong to minority communities in all the professional colleges is proportionately less than the number of students belonging to non-minority communities.

``The new criteria under Section 8 (1) (b) and (c) would extinguish the minority status of all existing minority self-financing colleges in the State and deny minority status to any new institution to be started in the State until the numerical strength of the professional colleges run by non-minorities exceeds those of the minorities,'' the memorandum says.

Section 10 (8) of the Professional Colleges Act makes it mandatory for the unaided minority educational institution to admit at least 50 per cent candidates from the community that runs the college from the rank list prepared by the Commissioner of Entrance Examinations. Referring to this, the Council points out that it will not be possible to achieve 50 per cent intake of students from the minority community in all colleges run by the minorities in the State.

Entrance test

The Council seeks deletion of Section 3 relating to admission procedure on the ground that `imposing State entrance followed by centralised counselling through a single window system will deny unaided professional colleges to have the right to hold an entrance test through the consortium of managements as part of their fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) (g) and 30 (1) of the Constitution' and on the plea that though the Supreme Court has permitted the State to provide for a single window admission system as an exceptional measure, the same is permissible only if it is proved that the entrance test conducted by the management is exploitative and non-transparent.

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