Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has blasted self-financing college managements, saying that collecting capitation fee amounted to corruption.
Mr Vijayan made this comment in the presence of SNDP union general secretary Vellappally Natesan, who runs a cluster of educational institutions under SN Trust. Mr Vijayan said students were being denied admission because they could not cough up hefty capitation fees.
He was inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of SN College, Punalur under the SN Trust on Saturday. He reminded attendees that not just deals associated with general corruption, but financial transactions for admissions to colleges should also be considered a corrupt practice.
'Managements which never used to collect capitation fee were now indulged in such corrupt practices. It should be remembered that these managements had been staying away from collecting huge capitation fee in the past even when they had faced severe financial crises.
Colleges in the name of Sree Narayana Guru should stay away from collecting capitation fee. This was because they had inherited the legacy of the Guru, who made the famous statement that people should attain enlightenment through education.
He narrated the history of the agriculture agitation spearheaded by social reformer Ayyankali in 1907, who called to stop working in fields till Dalit students were admitted in schools.
The present trend of allowing only students who could afford huge fee into higher education institutions was a return to the old when only affluent students studied in schools. It was the duty of state government to ensure that all sections of society had access to formal education, Mr Vijayan said.
It was after a great struggle that people of lower castes could get entry into formal educational institutions.
