The All India Education Protection Committee has urged that the 4-year undergraduate degree program should not be introduced in Tamil Nadu.
A review meeting of the Higher Education Department was held on July 6 at the Chennai Secretariat under the leadership of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay. Higher Education Minister Viswanathan, Finance Minister Mari Wilson, and department officials participated in the meeting. Various important decisions regarding higher education were discussed in this meeting. Most importantly, discussions were held on introducing a 4-year undergraduate degree program in the arts and science streams in order to raise educational standards in line with global practice.
At this stage, the Indian Education Protection Committee has urged that a 4-year degree program should not be introduced in Tamil Nadu.
In this regard, a statement issued by the Tamil Nadu office secretary of the committee, V. Sudhakar, said: The Tamil Nadu branch of the All India Education Protection Committee condemns this unnecessary move by the Tamil Nadu government. It should be withdrawn immediately. The Tamil Nadu government is citing global standards as the reason for this new plan. The Tamil Nadu government should note that in many universities in developed countries such as Britain, Germany, and France, the duration of undergraduate degree programs is only 3 years.
This 4-year degree program has no global standard. It has no connection to quality at all. Moreover, although the 3-year undergraduate degree programs offered in India are designed to maintain the quality of course content, the BJP-led central government is trying to impose a 4-year undergraduate degree program.
Moreover, in government colleges in Tamil Nadu, about 8,000 of the 12,000 professor posts have remained vacant for more than 10 years. In addition, colleges do not have sufficient classrooms and other basic infrastructure facilities needed to support the 4-year degree program. Therefore, it has been stated that the Tamil Nadu government should immediately withdraw the move to introduce the 4-year undergraduate degree course.