Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has extended a cautious welcome to the Right to Education Act which came into effect from April 1. Inaugurating the Institute of Fashion Technology Kerala (IFTK) at Kundara Velliman near here on Monday, Mr. Achuthanandan said that while he welcomes it, the new Act could temporarily upset and confuse the education sector of the State.
Considering the achievements made by Kerala in the education sector years ago, he wanted the Centre to permit the State implement the Act with suitable amendments. Allegations that Kerala is opposed to the Act are totally baseless. The Act should have been enacted at least fifty years ago.
Kerala had enacted a similar Act almost fifty years ago through which free education is provided from the pre-primary class to the higher secondary level. In Kerala there are high schools in all Panchayats and higher secondary schools in almost all Panchayats. Therefore free and universal education up to class 8 is nothing new in the State.
Under the Right to Education Act, children in the age group 6 to 14 will get free education up to class 8. One can imagine what will happen in Kerala when class 5 is brought under lower primary system through the Act and class 8 under the upper primary system.
Since the majority of the schools are in the private sector such realignment will enable the private managements to earn huge amounts of bribe at one stretch through appointment of teachers. The new Act has provisions to provide out of the way encouragement to unaided schools, he alleged.
Education comes in the concurrent list. Instead of imposing a common Central Act, the peculiarities of each State has to be considered.
“Changes introduced should not turn Procrustean”. Also the usual practice of sidelining Kerala in the fund support for implementing Acts should not be repeated in this instance.
He said that the fashion technology sector has tremendous employment opportunities. The IFTK has been started with technical support from the National Institute of Fashion Technology and will be under the management of the Centre for Continuing Education Kerala. The inaugural function was presided over by the Education Minister M.A. Baby. Labour Minister .K. Gurudasan, Kollam MP N. Peethambara Kurup and District Panchayat president K. Somaprasad spoke.
