Minister refuses to increase school capacity
TRIVANDRUM: The opposition members staged a walkout in the Kerala legislature Monday ater the government rejected their demand for an increase in higher secondary school batches.
Their leader vd satheesan said tens of thousands of qualified students will fail to enrol at state-run higher secondary schools of their choice this year as the seats are limited.
However, the general education minister, V Sivan Kuty said the government had already increased seats in private schools to meet the growing demand. He claimed that the state had enough higher secondary seats to accommodate all students who had cleared tenth grade this year and nobody would be let out. Reports say the southern parts of the state have excess seats while there was a heavy shortage in the northern districts where more pupils are geting qualified.
The cash-strapped state, hit hard by a sharp fall in tax collections and the increasing burden of debt servicing, is finding it difficult to spend more in the sector.
Satheesan said the 20 per cent increase in seats in north Kerala schools without ramping up the infrastructure would not stand legal scrutiny.
He cited a court verdict against cramming students in classrooms by increasing the seats and wanted to increase the number of batches by 20 per cent.
“The government is talking big about the public school infrastructure and doing everything to help the private sector,” he said.
“The private schools are not affordable to the poor children. Your policy is that only rich people need to study.” The opposition also received support from the treasury benches unexpectedly when the former health minister, KK Shailaja, questioned the rationality of calculating the shortage at the state level instead of districts.
Congress legislator Shafi Parambil said there were 38,518 students qualified for higher secondary education but there are only 28,267 seats.
A recent revolt by the girl’s wing of Muslim Students’ Federation (MSF) finally succeeded in persuading Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to allow more representation to women in party. Party working commitee has decided to go for a total organisational revamp and allowed 20 per cent reservation for women in feeder organisations’ leadership. The League will also form state and district level disciplinary commitees. A twomember panel will study the League’s defeat in 12 constituencies in the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly polls. The panel will submit its report within 15 days.
Indian National Congress, which leads the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) in the state, has also embarked on similar mission to infuse new blood into the grand old party.