The government’s decision to sanction more higher secondary schools and additional batches across the State, has brought relief to the Malabar region, which has been mostly suffering from the shortage of Plus Two seats.
The government’s decision, even when around 25,000 Plus Two seats, mostly in southern districts lie vacant across the State, has not gone down well with different teachers association in the State as they fear the decision would impact their job security.
HC judgmentEducation Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb while announcing this year’s SSLC result had said that the government was all set to sanction the new batches this academic year itself since the High Court had upheld the government decision to start higher secondary schools in 148 grama panchayats, where there were no Plus Two schools, and create additional batches wherever necessary.
Kerala School Teachers Association, the largest teachers’ forum in the State, has opposed the move stating that the decision would do more harm than good to the higher secondary section.
No study done“The decision was not taken based on any scientific study, instead it was taken after giving into the pressures of certain greedy management lobbies,” said A.K. Unnikrishnan, State secretary of the association.
“We will decide in a couple of days how to oppose the government move,” he said.
The Kerala Aided Higher Secondary Teachers Association (KAHSTA) has also asked the government to review its decision as it would cause hundreds of teachers to lose their jobs in the near future.
The association said that the government should go ahead with the decision only after conducting a panchayat-level study into the number of students passing the SSLC examination every year.
“Many higher secondary schools, especially in the southern districts of Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta were already facing a threat of division fall with teachers worried about losing their jobs,” said Joshy Antoney, president of KAHSTA.
The association alleged that the result percentage of the SSLC was ‘deliberately increased’ this time by making the valuation ‘liberal’ to justify the government decision to sanction more Plus Two batches in the State.
“The argument that the new higher secondary schools have been sanctioned to help students is only a ploy. It is a result of a deal the government had made with the managements,” said Mr. Antoney.
“The government could have cut short the batches wherever it was in excess and redeployed the teachers to places where new batches are sanctioned,” he said.
While many districts are reported to have hundreds of vacant Plus Two seats every year, the districts in Malabar including Kozhikode and Wayanad used to struggle with the limited seats given to them. In Kozhikode, as many as 43,757 students have qualified for higher education this time.
Only 34,740 seatsBut there were only 34,740 Plus Two seats available for them in different government and aided higher secondary schools in the district. The situation is not any different in other districts of Malabar.
