THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government’s decision to begin plus one classes from June 3 along with class I to X has drawn flak. The Federation of Higher Secondary School Teachers Association has termed the General Education department’s decision a ‘hasty move’.
Usually, the plus one classes begin only by the end of June or July as the admission procedure starts in June considering the convenience of the teachers and of the students coming from other curricula.
However, on the day when higher secondary results were announced, the General Education Secretary A Shahjahan said that the state education department will start the plus one classes from June 3 along with other classes. He also said that the admission procedure would be completed before May 31 so that the students could be admitted to the first year higher secondary examinations before the school re-opens.
Based on this, the submission of applications under the single-window system began from May 10. The trial allotment will be published on May 20 and the first allotment will be published on May 24. After filling the majority of the seats through two allotments in the first phase, the classes will begin on June 3.
According to the sources, the decision will help get adequate working days, i.e 203 working days as stipulated in the academic calendar for the 2019-20 academic year, sources said. However, O Shoukathali, general secretary, Kerala Higher Secondary Teachers Union (KHSTU), believes the decision was unnecessary and will pressurize teachers and students.
“For teachers, they are bound to complete the admission procedure including the allotment process before the deadline of May 31. Since the single window admission system which began on May 10 has only seven day period, the parents will have to rush to bring documents required for the admissions. And the teachers will need to complete the procedure before June 3 which could be tedious for them”, he said.
As per the government notification, the print of the online applications for the plus one admissions and the photocopies of the certificates should reach the schools by May 16. In previous years, the parents got enough time for collecting sufficient documents for the process. The association said the parents had to stand in long queues in front of revenue and village offices to obtain caste, income certificates for the admission process.
Meanwhile, A Shahjahan, told Express starting classes from June 3 will not be a problem either for teachers or students as the admission process is online. The Education secretary clarified that earlier the CBSE results were published late hence there was a delay in starting the plus one classes to accommodate the students from CBSE streams, “But this time, the CBSE results came out earlier so we decided to finish the allotment process in this month itself. Similarly, the allotment procedure will not cause any inconvenience to teachers and students.”