The government will go ahead with the merger of higher secondary and high school sections this year, Minister for Education C. Ravindranath has said.
He was addressing presspersons after a meeting with teachers and employees on the Khader commission report here on Tuesday. The first round of talks on the report, convened by General Education Secretary A. Shajahan last week, had ended with organisations owing allegiance to the Opposition staging a walkout over the issue of merger of the directorates.
The Minister said the government had put forward six proposals. First was that the lower primary, upper primary, high school and higher secondary sections would continue to exist without any change.
‘One campus, one unit’
In keeping with the idea of ‘one campus, one unit’ to overcome administrative problems, a single post of Director of General Education would be created, Mr. Ravindranath said. There would be one exam commissioner for the SSLC, higher secondary and vocational higher secondary examinations.
There would be a single office on campuses for high school and higher secondary sections. The number of staff in the offices would be proportional to the combined student strength of both sections.
The Minister said that in a school with higher secondary section, the principal would be the head. The headmaster would be the vice principal.
The Minister clarified that the posts of DDE, RDD, AD (VHSE), DEO, and AEO would continue to exist.
With primary school, high school and higher secondary continuing as separate units, there was no question of higher secondary teachers having to teach high school classes, the Minister said.
The Minister denied that the medium of instruction in higher secondary section would be Malayalam. “The medium of instruction is English at present, and the textbooks in English have reached schools. In addition, textbooks in Malayalam would be made available to students for better grasp of subjects,” he said.
The Minister said the department expected the vocational higher secondary section to completely become part of the higher secondary section by next year consequent on the implementation of the National Skills Qualifications Framework. This year, the framework was being implemented in 35 schools, taking the total number of schools where it is in effect to 101.
Special meeting planned
Special meeting would be held with sports and language teachers to address their concerns, Mr. Ravindranath said.
The Minister also met with school managers, students, and organisations in local self-government institutions to discuss the report. The discussions would be consolidated and the report placed at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he said.
