THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Kerala is the first state to be declared free of extreme poverty. Who made this declaration in November 2025?” This query, whose answer is ‘Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’, was among the 30 questions posed to school students in the preliminary round of the state government’s ‘Vijnana Yatra–Chief Minister’s Mega Quiz’, which kicked off on Monday.
The quiz, being conducted separately for students of Classes 8 to 12 and college students, triggered a controversy, with teachers’ unions aligned with opposition parties alleging that it was being used as a platform to propagate the LDF government’s achievements under the guise of promoting social awareness and historical knowledge among the younger generation.
The quiz is being conducted by the IPRD in association with the departments of general and higher education. A majority of questions in the questionnaire of the CM’s Mega Quiz, accessed by TNIE, focused on welfare schemes and flagship projects of both the present and previous LDF governments.
These included the 1967-69 EMS Namboodiripad government’s waiver of school fees for Classes 9 and 10, Maveli Stores launched in 1980 by the E K Nayanar government, as well as programmes of the Pinaryai government such as LIFE Mission, KFON and Punargeham, besides innovations such as the ‘KSRTC Chalo’ mobile application.
Pro-Congress Kerala Pradesh School Teachers Association (KPSTA) said ulterior moves to use children to further political interests in the run up to the assembly election should be fiercely resisted.“Misusing the education sector to tide over strong anti-government sentiments prevailing across the state is highly condemnable,” KPSTA state president K Abdul Majeed said. A senior general education department official said the questions also included schemes that were launched when the UDF government was in power.