THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Chief Minister and AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy has said the 16 reports submitted by T P Sreenivasan IFS when he was vice-chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council is all time valid. He was speaking at the release of Sreenivasan’s book ‘Education of an Ambassador’ written on the experiences of a diplomat as an educationist.
The 16 reports he proposed to the government included implementation of semester system in total, convert at least ten per cent of colleges to autonomous, open private universities, have tie ups with foreign universities, start police university, impart skill education to gear up students for taking up jobs in industries and an Arabic university. Chandy said if not today but tomorrow the state will have to implement these proposals.
Chandy said these reports if implemented properly would totally change the shape of higher education in the state. He added among the reports submitted to the government in his five year tenure only a few were implemented and among that the autonomous college project was path-breaking.
The world is changing and we as a society are always in touch with the global development. However, we are not adapting to this changing world scenario. In the educational sector, several forces are pulling back the changes while the close relatives of the proponents of these agitations have taken up quality education abroad and got into cushy jobs, Chandy said.
Sreenivasan was assaulted by student activists when he was entering the venue of the global education meet and he came to that function without changing clothes and even without combing his dishevelled hair, Chandy said. He also added Sreenivasan had done a sweet revenge to those who had assaulted him by putting the photo which had him after assault as the cover photo of this book, Chandy said. Chandy presided over the function, while the book was released by Cardinal Mar Cleemis by handing over a copy to Rajan Gurukkal who took over the higher education council from Sreenivasan.