Chennai, Mar 31 (IANS): MDMK leader and Member of Parliament Vaiko, who is an alliance partner of the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, said that the party would conduct protest marches across the state on April 7 against the Common University Entrance Tests(CUET) for admission to Central universities.

In a statement on Thursday, Vaiko said that the CUET is an attempt of the Union government to devalue the marks secured by students in schools and to devalue the state board syllabus. He said that this would deny opportunities to students from poor and marginalised backgrounds in the state.

Notably, UGC has announced that no weightage would be given to Class XII board examination marks and admissions for Under Graduate programmes in Central Universities will solely be based on the CUET. This has invited the wrath of several Tamil organisations, including the VCK, NTK, DMDK, and Vaiko's MDMK. The ruling DMK has also come out with stiff opposition against the CUET.

Vaiko also said that party's youth and student wings would come out in protest against the Union government's new models in education including CUET and National Education Programme.

The Tamil Nadu political parties are opposed to the National Entrance Cum Eligibility Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses and have already passed two unanimous resolutions in the state Assembly against NEET.