THRISSUR: When Professor C Raveendranath becomes the education minister in the LDF ministry, it would be a memorable moment for St Thomas College, Thrissur, which had gifted the first education minister Professor Joseph Mundassery to Kerala.
Mundassery, who was elected to the Assembly from Manalur constituency in Thrissur in 1957, became the first education minister in the EMS ministry in 1957-59 period, was a Malayalam professor at St Thomas College. Similarly Raveendranath was chemistry professor in the same college where he had completed his graduation and post-graduation before being selected as a teacher.
Besides, his elevation as an education minister would set another milestone as he would be the second education minister in the state from the majority community. His elevation would blunt a charge levelled against the previous LDF and UDF governments by various majority communities that the education portfolio has been monopolised by the minority communities.
K Chandrasekharan of the Janata Party was the first education minister from the majority community in the state during the 1987-91 Nayanar government.
When Raveendranath takes up the reins of the education department, the challenge before him is to save the education sector from the clutches of communal politics.
Speaking to newsmen in Thrissur, education minister-designate Raveendranath said his first attempt would be to free the education sector from the grip of communal forces. “I would strengthen the public education sector as a whole in the state without compromising academic quality,” he said. A man who used to cycle to the college where he taught, the state expects a lot from Raveendranath who had made the Puthukkad the first hi-tech constituency in the country by introducing e-classrooms and future classrooms under the Kodakara Sustainable Development Project. The schools in Puthukkad became the first in the government/aided sector to introduce future classrooms for both the higher secondary and high school students.
His attempt to script a new chapter in organic farming sector has also won laurels as his constituency is a major supplier of Kadali plantains to the Guruvayur Sree Krishna temple, under a project titled ‘Kadalivanam’ led by Kudumbasree members.