KOTTAYAM: Pouring scorn on the LDF Goverment’s education policy, the Nair Service Society(NSS) on Monday demanded a change in government’s irresponsible approach towards the aided sector.
NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair, who presented the organisation’s annual budget for 2017-18 at the NSS headquarters at Perunna in Changanasseri here, reeled out the various government policies which will allegedly undermine the functioning of aided educational institutions. He said of the total 12,615 schools, 7,145 were from the aided sector.
“However, the functioning of these aided schools has been in crisis for the last five due to the various policies of state government,” Nair said. The government’s irresponsible approach towards the Right to Education Act, 2009 had precipitated the crisis in the education sector,according to Nair.
“The state government initially shied away from implementing the 1:30 teacher-student ratio in primary and 1:35 in the upper primary sector. It was only later the government accepted the ratio,” he said.
Nair also flayed the government’s reluctance to implement staff fixation from 2011-2015. “Though, they implemented it in 2015-16, the recruitment of teachers was affected, which adversely impacted the students’ performance and schools’ functioning. The move to grant protection to teachers recruited from 2006, many of them appointed illegally, has also put the managements, having a transparent recruitment process, in trouble. This apart, by withholding the staff fixation order, the government has put a freeze on recruitments,” he said.
According to Sukumaran Nair, when ‘new schools’ were sanctioned the government had said only protected teachers should be appointed. “However, they backed down from it and now say the recruitments should be carried out solely from among the protected teachers. As per statistics, there are 3,597 protected teachers. Since there are 12,615 aided schools in the state, they can be easily redeployed at a rate of one protected teacher for every four schools,” he said.
Nair also criticised the BJP-NDA Government at the Centre for not constituting a commission for the forward communities. He said the Union Government can adopt the Kerala model- where a Corporation and permanent commission have been constituted for forward castes - in this regard.