Higher Secondary Seat: High Court order to take action within 15 days

KOCHI: The High Court directed the Education Department to complete the inspection within 15 days and allow the school or additional batch in the places where there are not enough facilities for higher secondary education. Justice TR Ravi's order is based on the assessment that there are not enough plus two seats available in Malappuram and Palakkad districts. At the same time, the court also clarified that additional batches should not be allowed except in accordance with the government order of 2016 in this regard.

The court considered the petitions filed by OV Usman Kurikkal, the manager of AR Nagar School, Malappuram, pointing out that additional batches were sanctioned in 97 schools for the year 2023-24 without considering the educational requirement without notifying the Malabar region. The court pointed out that the government is still facing confusion.

The government argued that there is a report by the Director of General Education that the seats were far short of the requirement in six districts of the Malabar region, including Malappuram and Palakkad, which is why 97 additional batches were sanctioned despite an additional liability of Rs 15.71 crore. However, the court criticized that last year only 53 batches were allotted while 15000 seats were required in Malappuram alone. The government's reply was that there was not enough time to find schools separately. The court said that although the allocation of 97 additional batches should be quashed for non-compliance with orders, the court is not doing it as the academic year has started.