THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Amid reports over mistakes in the government figures on the number of children who sought admission to schools without mentioning caste and religion, a fresh data has come out suggesting that only 1,538 students chose to mention neither caste nor religion. While 2,797 entered religion not caste, as many as 2,984 kept away from citing religion.
The new data came out through Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) vice-chairman and executive director Anvar Sadath's Facebook post, which was deleted later. In a short table, he explained various categories of caste and religion entries during school admission. He posted the data entered with Sampoorna School Management Software.
According to Sadath, only 1,538 students entered neither caste nor religion. As per the data entered in Sampoorna, 1,22,662 students have not entered their caste. However, 1,19,865 students entered religion though they have not entered caste, suggesting that 2,797 students chose to have religion but not caste.
As per the data in the case of religion, there are three categories. While 1,750 students did not select religion, 748 students preferred to be non-religious. Another 486 entered 'not applicable' in the religion column. Therefore, the total number of students who have kept away from mentioning religion would come to 2,984.
The data presented by Education Minister C Raveendranath in the Assembly suggesting there are about 1.24 lakh casteless, non-religious students in the state, was later termed misleading. Many schools came out against the government data, terming it wrong.