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Thiruvananthapuram: An expert committee appointed by the Kerala government has proposed scrapping unaided higher secondary batches in government-aided private schools.
The committee headed by professor V Karthikeyan Nair, after studying the issues in higher secondary schools in detail, found that students and teachers have been exploited over the years through the introduction of unaided batches in aided schools.
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At present, there are around 90 unaided batches at aided schools across the state. Government schools in such regions experience student shortages. It is said that teachers in unaided batches are underpaid. And also, students in the unaided batches are taught by aided school teachers.
Apart from this, a recommendation has been made for reserving 40 percent of the higher secondary seats in schools in the tribal areas of Palakkad, Wayanad, and Idukki districts for students from tribal communities.
The committee also spotted that there are 50 higher secondary batches across the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, and Kottayam which have been experiencing shortages of students for 3 years. Experts have suggested reorganising such batches to meet the requirements of students in other districts.
There is an additional requirement for around 200 batches in schools across the districts of Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Wayand and Kasargod. The expert committee also suggested that converting high schools into higher secondary schools would attract more students. There are 30 schools in Malappuram identified for the same.
One class must not exceed more than 50 students. But in districts like Malappuram, which is currently witnessing a rise in number of students, 10 percent extra seats can be allotted, but still the number of students should be limited to 55 students per class, the expert committee pointed out.
The committee also recommended admitting students to the 10 per cent community quota only through the government's single window admission (Ekajalakam) procedure. The report was submitted to education minister V Sivankutty.
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