A Smart Makeover for Kerala’s Government Schools

A story told by a government school headmistress in Kochi, a decade and half ago, comes to mind, as we see a rush to enroll students in government schools year after year. In early 2000s, government schools saw an exodus of students to private schools. Though private schools were expensive, parents preferred them citing lack of facilities and English education in government schools.

Many a government school had a strength of less than 100 and would fall into the “uneconomic list”. This meant there was always a threat of the school being closed down. The teachers had to go canvassing from home to home to ensure that they got the requisite number students to keep the school viable. According to the headmistress, she had managed to collect around 100 students to escape being on the list. But on the day of verification by government officials the student strength in the school fell below 80. The school nearby had lured the students over for the day. This scramble for students to keep a school going is no longer the case today.

In the recent past there has been a reverse flow of students from private schools to Kerala’s government schools. The trend in the education sector in the state has seen government schools attract more students. Initiatives to develop schools in tune with modern changes in education such as smart classrooms, infrastructure, English lessons, have restored parents’ confidence in government schools, once branded as “substandard institutions”. As a result, a total of 1.86 lakh new students registered in government schools and government-aided schools in the academic year 2018-19.

Education, Features

By Babu K Peter

October 31, 2019

A Debt Trap called Educational Loans

Educational loans have caught large sections of South Indian youth in a debt trap and the problem is so acute that even if the recipients manage to repay the loans, they suffer life-long consequences, from which there is no easy escape.

The problem is particularly bad in the case of Kerala, with its high rate of literacy, where the aspirational value of education as a means of securing a better life is much stronger compared to many other states. Kerala also is one of the most exemplary examples of how education and certain professions have lifted whole communities out of the social and economic hierarchy.

It is no wonder, therefore, that Kerala accounts for the largest disbursement of educational loans by banks and financial institutions for any single state. Over half of total educational loans in India are disbursed in South India, according to rating agency Care Ratings; and Kerala and Tamil Nadu together account for 36 percent of all outstanding educational loans in the country, which gives an idea about the high dependence on bank finance for education in the two states. About 95 percent of the loans are provided by the public sector banks under priority lending, with State Bank of India leading the pack by far.

Economy, Education

By K Raveendran

October 16, 2019

Making of the ‘Underclass’: Urban India’s Muslim population

Cities are built by people, and like people, cities tell stories. Across India’s urban landscape, in places like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jaipur and even in cities where Muslims make a substantial portion of the population (around 20%) like Hyderabad and Aligarh, members of the community are confined to religiously segregated and systematically marginalised ghettos or enclaves.

The story of this physical demarcation between largely upper-caste Hindu areas and Muslim mohallas–which in some places accommodate people from the OBC and Dalit communities too–represents the deep cleavages that mould the society into the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’.

While one might argue that Muslims, like everyone else, have the freedom to choose their place of residence, evidence has repeatedly pointed to the contrary. Their decision to live in certain neighbourhoods is not as much made as it is imposed by a combination of discriminatory real estate practices and fear of communal violence. Several accounts of having been denied housing rights due to being Muslim, especially in India’s most important metropolitan cities, have surfaced at an unprecedented rate in the last decade, and even traversed class boundaries. But, the threat of violence is a bigger factor.

Development, Education, Employment, Housing, Life, People, Religion, Society

By Saud Amin Khan

October 15, 2019

How Utilitarianism is gnawing at Minority Education in Kerala

There is a certain teleology in the pursuit of knowledge and higher education among the upwardly-mobile section of Muslims of Kerala. The educational consultancies and the like that are active in Malabar, sending upper middle-class kids to foreign destinations for medical education look at education purely from a practical, utilitarian perspective. Knowledge for the sake of itself seems a concept alien to these tycoons of commercialized knowledge.

Aspirational education without idealistic underpinnings can hurt the prospects of communities climbing up the ladder of upward mobility. Hyper commercialization is wreaking havoc on the progressive educational edifice in the state, which has for so long believed that there are certain things money cannot buy, and that prime among them was education.

Social climbing is an intricate process. There are agencies galore, catering to the needs of middle-class Muslim parents seeking instant gratification from earning a quick medical degree for their wards. Education, which was once seen as a prop to help subaltern communities out of drudgery, is now perceived as a utilitarian tool for social as well as political advancement. Such tendencies also trickle down, in ways undesirable, into the field of primary education as well, where the state’s performance has been laudatory.

Culture, Education, Features, Kerala, People, Religion, Society

By Umar N

September 16, 2019

The Criminalization of SFI

Justice (Retd.) P K Shamsudeen enquiry commission has submitted its report to the Kerala Governor and Chief Minister on the role of student bodies in perpetuating violence in government colleges in Kerala and confirmed the existence of ‘Idi muris’ (torture rooms) in many colleges across the state. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI) is primarily in the dock for monopolising campus politics in colleges like Maharajas College, Ernakulam, Government Arts College, Thiruvananthapuram and Government College Madappally (Kozhikode) with the aid of Left-affiliated Teachers’ Unions and faculties. The commission was constituted in the backdrop of a suicide attempt by a girl student in University College, Thiruvananthapuram. Weeks later, student leaders of the SFI had stabbed a 3^rd year student Akhil, incidentally also of the SFI, bringing to focus the nefarious activities of the student body in the campus. Veteran journalist and ideologue Appukuttan Vallikkunnu writes on the criminalisation of SFI in this backdrop.

Democracy and dissent are trampled when a political party that works within the framework of democratic centralism tries to regiment its people using state power. It is this kind of despotism that made Communist Leader Stalin synonymous with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. The disintegration of Soviet Union after seven decades also had its roots in it.

While assessing the repercussions of the disintegration of Soviet Union in the Socialist world, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) took a conscious decision at the Party Congress held at Chennai in 1992 to ensure internal democracy within the party at all levels. They even amended the Party Constitution to this effect. However, with the passage of time, the CPI (M) has metamorphosed into a party controlled by a clique. The criminalization afflicting the party and its feeder organizations today is also a result of this.

Education, Kerala, Opinion, Politics

By Appukuttan Vallikunnu

July 15, 2019

Progressive Kerala must hang its head in Shame

The historic legacy of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, in the heart of the capital, has been stained by bloody violence. The attackers belonging to the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students’ wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had no qualms about driving a knife into the chest of a fellow student, even when they knew he was one of their own members.

It was only a couple of months ago that a female student had attempted suicide leaving a note detailing the torture she had to undergo at the hands of the Union leaders. The note had listed the names of those leaders but the police took no action against the accused. Even the FIR was doctored so as to save the perpetrators. Though the case was investigated by the Director of College Education, the report was recommendatory in nature and no stringent punishments were meted out.

As a result, human rights violations continued unabated in University College. The campus has been a haven for criminals for years—Incidents involving alcohol and drug abuse are all too common. Using the label of the SFI, they lock up students and attack them physically and mentally. The political leadership has no moral strength to terminate the activities of this group of criminals who contribute to the political and the organizational strength of the SFI and the CPI (M).

Education, Opinion

By M Shajar Khan

October 6, 2017

Palakkad DDE office suspected to have tampered with PSC appointment

The office of the Deputy Directorate of Education in Palakkad is found to have caught up in a mess after the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) filed a complaint against the office on charges of corruption in the advice letter sent to the PSC candidate.

It is suspected that the DDE office in Palakkad changed the number of posts for Junior Language Teacher (Arabic) from one to four, for which the advice memo was sent in May 2011. The Public Service Commission noticed the discrepancy when the appointed candidate’s documents were sent from the DDE office for verification at the PSC office.

Reportedly, the office of Deputy Directorate of Education has also delayed the process of transferring the documents of the appointed candidate for verification at the PSC office. Noticing a spate of malpractices, the PSC had strengthened the service verification in 2011. According to this, soon after the office concerned receives the advice letter from the PSC for the appointment of the candidate, the Government office is obliged to send back the documents of the candidate for verification.

Corruption, Education, Employment, People

By Greeshma Neelakandan

April 28, 2017

Summer Classes in Schools to be Banned

This year, school students in Kerala will enjoy a complete summer break as the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has directed the Principal Secretary for General Education to issue an order banning vacation classes by all schools including the higher secondary, vocational higher secondary schools, and those affiliated to the ICSE and the CBSE.

The order comes on the basis of complaints received by the commission and media reports. The commission got to know that drinking water wasn’t being made available despite the directive by the commission on February 25^th.

According to the sources, the Child Rights Commission had made it clear to the Secretary on various guidelines to be followed while conducting vacation classes. And these included availability of drinking water and toilet facilities. According to Dr. Leju P Thomas, teacher at St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Trivandrum, “This is a welcome change because summer classes at times are a strain on children.”

Education, Law

By The Kochi Post Staff

April 19, 2017

Trump’s H1B Executive Order Causes Confusion Among Indian Students

Ever since his campaigning days, current President of the United States, Donald Trump has been talking about reducing the number of immigrants to America. This included increased job preference to Americans and cutting down the number of approval on H1B visas. Ever since Trump has been planning this policy, it has sent out a panic of sorts among Indian students studying in the US and students who plan to go for courses in American Universities.

This has also caused a certain amount of distress among companies who send engineers and other qualified workers on the H1B visas for projects to their American offices. Also, according to a survey by consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Pvt Ltd, the number of Indians in the US searching for jobs in India has gone up more than 10-fold between December and March.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, employers seeking H-1B work visas for 2018 declined for the first time in five years. The H1B is a non-immigrant visa allowing people to seek employment which are often given to skilled workers.

Education, Politics

By The Kochi Post Staff

April 5, 2017

Jishnu Pranoy’s Mother prevented from protesting near DGP’s office, triggers Hartal

Close to three months after Jishnu Pranoy, an engineering student’s death, the family stills awaits for justice to be served against college management and authorities who abetted their son’s suicide. In an irony of sorts on the 60^th anniversary of Kerala’s first Ministry coming into power, a mother protesting for justice was not only manhandled but arrested for staging a protest in front of DGP Loknath Behera’s office.

Jishnu’s mother, Mahija was not only stopped from holding a hunger strike in front of the police headquarters, but dragged by women police officials and forcefully taken to the Nandavanam police camp along with the remaining family members. As she complained about uneasiness while being taken to the police camp, she was admitted to a government hospital at Peroorkada and later shifted to the Trivandrum Medical College.

An angered mob gathered outside the DGP’s office, tried stopping Loknath Behera’s car. UDF as well as BJP has called for a hartal to protest against such behaviour by the police. Among arrested were also his father, uncle and 11 other family members.

Education, Politics

By The Kochi Post Staff

February 9, 2017

Making Reading Enjoyable for Kids

Unwinding with a good book maybe the pastime for some, but it is turning into an uncommon hobby with time. Sangeetha Suryanarayanan, an IT professional, felt the same when her two boys wouldn’t read on their own. “When I was working, I would buy books for my kids, with the hope of getting them to read. But, they wouldn’t read on their own,” she says. “I then started reading out to them everyday. I made it a point to spend some time on that. I noticed the difference. They took to reading and now have the habit of reading before bedtime,” she adds.

Sangeetha who was based in Bangalore and has lived in the US for a few years, moved to Kochi in 2005, and started working for TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). She quit her job in 2014 because she wanted to do something in education. She realized that encouraging children to read was something she was interested in. So, she started a reading club at her house.

The Read Club

She invited kids in the neighbourhood and read out stories to them. She would encourage them to read out loud too. “Kids between ages 6 to 12 were coming to the club. I then thought of taking this ahead formally and so, started approaching government schools,” Sangeetha explains. This is how the R.E.A.D club, a social enterprise came about. “R.E.A.D stands for Read, Explore, Ask and Discover. It aims to provide an environment where children can get together to read beyond their curriculum, read more and read better, explore the world through stories, nurture their curious self and discover learning creatively,” she says.

Education, People

By Sumitra Nair