The government on Tuesday assured High School teachers that their pay and designation would remain unaffected even though Class VIII becomes part of Upper Primary section with the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act.
“There won’t be any change in the pay or designation of High School teachers. They will continue to teach in their existing schools even though Class VIII becomes part of Upper Primary section,” Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb said in response to a query from ‘Express’. He was briefing mediapersons about the achievements of the UDF Government in the education sector in the last two years. With the implementation of the RTE Act, Classes I to VIII will be classified under ‘elementary cycle.
Within the cycle, there are two sections - Classes I to V, constituting lower primary and classes VI to VIII constituting upper primary. At present, Class VIII is part of High School. There will only be re-designation of schools.
Class V and VIII will continue to function on existing premises of Upper Primary and High Schools respectively, Abdu Rabb said.
He however admitted that “100 per cent implementation” of the RTE Act could be achieved only by the beginning of the next academic year.
“This is owing to the large number of aided schools in the state. Also, issues related to Unique Identity (UID) cards for students need to be rectified,” he said. Asked about the proposal to set up Higher Secondary schools in 148 panchayats in the state, Abdu Rabb said that the government had not reached a final decision.
“We are yet to decide whether new schools need to be set up or whether batches should be added to existing schools like last year,” he said, adding that a decision would be taken before the beginning of this academic year.
Refuting reports that funds under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) had been largely underutilised, Abdu Rabb said 82 per cent of SSA funds had been utilised in the last financial year.
“Out of the Rs 523 crore that the Centre earmarked for the state, only Rs 493 crore was disbursed,” he said.
Local bodies have not utilised the funds allotted to them, since 1995, to create infrastructure facilities in schools, he said, adding that directions had been issued to clear the backlog.
Out of the Rs 120 crore allocated under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), around Rs 51 crore has been spent, he said.
The government will fund the expense for distributing free school uniforms to students in government as well as aided schools, the minister said. Asked about the demand of private engineering colleges to reduce the cutoff mark for admission to 45 per cent, owing to non-availability of students, Abdu Rabb said that talks with college managements were still on.
The government had announced a moratorium on setting up new engineering colleges in the state in the wake of deteriorating educational standards in these institutions.However, the courts have quashed various decisions taken by the government in this regard, he said.
The Cabinet will soon take a decision on setting up an ‘Academic City’ in the state, Abdu Rabb said and added that the ‘Academic City’ would give students an opportunity to pursue courses offered by internationally-acclaimed universities.
However, the place for setting up the ‘Academic City’ has not been decided yet, he said.