THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All the pandemonium over the proposal of the Pre-degree Board might have made his term as Education Minister in the Karunakaran ministry in 1982 etched in the pages of history. But T M Jacob has one more controversial proposal to his credit, which he himself narrated at many functions as a ‘courageous’ step. Especially, when his audience turned out to be school students.
It was during the last phase of the 1982 ministry that Jacob decided to convert the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) into SSC - without the ‘L’.
‘’I have been pulled up for removing the ‘L’ (meaning the bone) of SSLC,’’ Jacob used to remark jestingly.
However, the conversion stands testimony to the way the reformer in him loved to work. It was the only year (1987) that SSLC became SSC in the state. The very next year, the new government reversed the name and revoked the decision itself.
‘’There was additional information on students in the SSC book and it was slightly bigger (the size of an A4 page),’’ recalls DPI A Shajahan.
Many officials in the then Education Department remember how his ideas were often received with cheer in the department. ‘’For officials like us, it would be the golden cup for the School Youth Festival that would remain a landmark decision of his. It gave the festival a new aura,’’ recalls M Gopalan, former Joint Director, General Education.
During Jacob’s term, Gopalan was the DDE in Kannur and is now based in the city leading a retired life.