The Education Department has turned down the proposal to convert the Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Balussery, Kozhikode, which recently introduced gender neutral uniform in its Plus Two classes, to a co-ed institution.
This was announced by General Education Minister V. Sivankutty in the Assembly on Wednesday in reply to a submission by K.M. Sachindev, MLA.
Quoting the Director of General Education, the Minister said that there was a Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for Boys nearby, which had been admitting girl students for some time now. Thus, there was no gender disparity in providing education in the locality. If the girls higher secondary school is also made a co-ed institution, children from the same area would seek admissions there. This might lead to a drop in the number of students in each of these schools. The number of teachers’ posts would come down and they would have to be refixed again. The students were also not facing any kind of problems related to travelling to the school.
As per a report of the District Educational Officer, Thamarassery, the two schools are separated by just a wall. The GVHSS for Boys is spread across two acres and 50 cents and has a playground. The girls school has only one acre and 30 cents, but no playground. If boys are admitted to the girls school, the economic feasibility of running two such institutions would have to be examined. The Minister said that the Director of General Education had been asked to examine the possibility of merging both these schools. Based on his report, further steps would be taken, Mr. Sivankutty said.
