Plus Two for 11 new high schools

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 6. The Cabinet has decided to sanction 11 new high schools in the State and permit them to start Plus Two courses also.

The Education Minister, Mr. P. J. Joseph, told presspersons here today that the beneficiaries of this decision were all managements who were running Pre-Degree Courses (PDC) last year. They were being sanctioned new high schools and Plus Two courses as there was no high school nearby to compensate for the PDC seats being delinked from their colleges.

On complaints about non-sanctioning of Plus Two courses for some managements, the Minister said complaints were natural as only 143 private schools could be sanctioned the courses against 950 applications. The number of courses sanctioned in the districts like Kasaragod, Wayanad and Idukki was lower as the courses were sanctioned in relation to the number of delinked PDC seats. Any anomalies in the application of the norms would be rectified. To that extent the list was not final.

Mr. Joseph refuted complaints that the claims of corporate managements were ignored. In the districts such as Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Pathanamthitta, almost all courses had gone to corporate managements. Courses had been sanctioned to a few individual managements in these districts on community basis. Courses sanctioned to a Namboodiri management in Palai, Villala management in Pathanamthitta district and the Ramakrishna Mission in Kaladi fell into this category. More courses had gone to individual managements in Malabar as the number of corporate managements was low in that area.

He said the PDC was delinked in phases on the basis of detailed studies. As much as 76 per cent of the government schools and 74 per cent of the private schools which were sanctioned Plus Two last year had set up adequate facilities. In the case of government schools, the Parent-Teacher Associations had contributed much. Additional courses would be sanctioned to them after verification of the facilities.

The Minister said more Plus Two courses could not be sanctioned this year owing to financial constraints of the Government. Asked why courses were not sanctioned to recognised aided schools under such circumstances, he said it required policy decisions. The same was the case with sanctioning of new upper primary schools.

He said that against 1.06 lakh PDC seats that were available previously, 1.30 lakh Plus Two seats were now available. There were also 50,000 seats in the vocational higher secondary schools. However, that was not enough to accommodate the 2.75 lakh pupils who had passed the SSLC examination this year. The Government would issue orders in a day or two to make the services of open school available to the remaining students.

The Minister said there would be no rethinking on orders disallowing the functioning of unauthorised schools. The Government had to follow the orders of the Kerala High Court in this regard. However, sanctioning of lower primary sections would be considered in the cases of schools with facilities which already had recognition for higher classes.

He claimed that the allocation of Plus Two courses was done in a fair manner.

The following are the managements to whom new high schools and Plus Two courses were sanctioned with location of school in brackets:

TKM College Trust Board, Kollam (Kottamkara panchayat), MSM Trust, Mavelikara (Kayamkulam), Muslim Educational Society, Kozhikode (Ponnani, Mannarkkad and Mambad panchayat, Malappuram district), Marthoma Diocese, Kozhikode (Chungathara, Malappuram), St. Mary's College (Sultan Bathery), S.N. Trust, Kollam (Ward No. 14, Kollam, Nattika, Elavayoor and Mararikkulam).

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Section  : Southern States
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