In the next five years, Tamil Nadu may see 10 universities in partnership with Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and MIT, if the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is elected for a third consecutive term. The party's 2021 election manifesto was out on March 14. Apart from this, the manifesto contains a few big promises for the education sector, including a Public-Private Partnership initiative to fund STEM research and making Tamil education mandatory in every school in the state, until Class XII.
At the same time, one cannot choose to ignore a few similarities that it has with the manifesto of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the opposition party. The DMK manifesto was released on March 13. For instance, both parties promise to provide free milk to students across government schools. They also promise to set up coaching centres in every district to help students crack the UPSC examination, NEET, JEE (Main and Advanced) and the TNPSC examination. There is a proposal by AIADMK too to bring education under the state list. While the DMK promises 4G/5G data-enabled tabs to school students, the ruling party promises 2 GB of data every day all year to college students.
The party also promises to provide breakfast in government schools with private participation. Last year, they had started a similar scheme, where they had commissioned the Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide breakfast to students of corporation schools in Chennai. They also say that they will expand the mid-day meal scheme for students of Classes IX, X, XI and XII too.
The party says that it will set up a separate skill development university in Tamil Nadu and start a 3,500 Crore project to start an online skill development course to teach new emerging technology. It adds that it will also set up a government arts and science college wherever necessary. Apart from this, there is a proposal to set up an Islamic University to honour Islamic reformer Qiad-e-millat. The party also promises to appeal to the central government to hold centralised tests at the state level in Tamil.
With the objective of making financing easier, the party says that it will make start-up loans available through a single window and that the loans will get cleared in 30 days. It also says that it will set up IT parks in every district.
