THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Institute of Social Sciences is organising a two-day international conference in New Delhi on the historic declaration of education for all made by then Travancore regent Gowri Parvathy Bhai in June 1817.
Vice-President Hamid Ansari will inaugurate the conference on Saturday. The conference is being sponsored by the state government and Unicef to mark the 200th anniversary of the declaration.
The step, whereby the government shouldered the cost of education of all citizens without discrimination, revolutionised the educational scenario in Kerala.
Further, it was based on this declaration that the government land was allotted to schools and colleges. Its significance lies in the fact that universal education was an unfamiliar concept in most countries. Also, the women in Kerala came to the forefront socially and economically as a result of this forward-looking policy.
The record on the announcement written in the old Malayalam script is kept in the state archives. Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien, and Foroogh Foyouzat, Unicef India, and Institute of Social Services chairman Dr George Mathew will address the conference.