Tamil Nadu’s Horizontal Reservation Policy for Government School Student

Tamil Nadu has played an important role in introducing horizontal reservation to support students from government schools. These students often face disadvantages compared to private school students because of social and economic reasons such as caste, family income, parents’ education, occupation, and gender. The Kalaiyarasan Commission described this as a “cognitive gap.”

The story began in August 1996, when the DMK government led by M. Karunanidhi set up a committee to review the quality of education. The committee recommended that 15% of seats in professional courses should be reserved for students from panchayat schools in rural areas.

In December 1997, the policy was extended to include medical courses, and later, law courses. For a few years, this helped many rural and disadvantaged students enter higher education.

In 2001, when the AIADMK government under J. Jayalalithaa came to power, the quota was increased from 15% to 25%, making the policy stronger.

This marked the beginning of Tamil Nadu’s long association with horizontal reservation, a policy designed to make higher education more fair and inclusive for government school students.