Appointment of committee will not solve Plus One seat crisis

The state government and the Education Department have not yet been able to find a proper solution to the issue of the shortage of Plus One seats. From the very beginning, it was alleged that there were not enough Plus One seats in the Malabar region. It was the Muslim League that raised this issue first and threatened to stage a strike. Later, the student organizations of the Left and Right Fronts also came forward with the strike. The protests turned violent in many places and the police took action against the protesters. All that time, the Education Minister kept repeating that there were enough seats in the Malabar region. However, the government found itself on the defensive with the SFI launching a strike and the KSU holding an educational bandh yesterday. The government found it difficult to save its face as the opposition brought the matter to the assembly.

Since there is a significant shortage of seats in the Malappuram district, it has been decided in principle to allow temporary batches. In addition, a two-person committee was formed to give a report on how the batch allocation should be done. The deadline for the committee to turn in the report is July 5. The minister believes that the problem in the other two districts will be solved with the supplementary allotment. When asked if the strike was a success, the organizations would respond that it was a complete success. When questioned if he had given in to the demonstrators, the minister will respond that the committee would decide whether the matter was fair or not. In effect, both parties are relieved now. The losers are the students, who are worried about not getting a seat in the school of their choice to study the subject of their choice despite getting A plus in all subjects, and their parents! According to Minister V Sivankutty, there is a shortage of 9487 seats in the Malappuram, Palakkad and Kasaragod districts alone!

The Education Department has the figures regarding children who have qualified for further education in each district. It also has the stats about the number of Plus One seats available in each district. The department also knows the situation in each district after the allotments. Couldn't the Education Department have avoided the strike and the riots if it had taken action by calculating the shortage of about ten thousand seats a little earlier? Sufficient seats do not mean that there is a chair or a bench for every student to sit in the class! There should be a proper student-teacher ratio in every school. According to information from various districts after the start of the Plus One class, there are between fifty and sixty children in each class in several places.

The student-teacher ratio approved by the state government at the higher secondary level is 40:01. In CBSE, the ratio is 30:01. Additional batches will be required to allocate the seats by looking at the ratio accurately. This will cause a serious liability to the government as more teachers will have to be appointed. There shouldn't be more students in the classroom than the ratio since the teacher needs to provide each student with individualized attention. At the same time, the government should not give in to the pressures and threats made by aided school managements to allocate additional posts under the guise of additional batches. The Education Department has the responsibility to ensure that all the students who have obtained good marks get access to education. It should act swiftly to resolve the current shortage of seats.