Thiruvananthapuram: Education Minister V Sivankutty has reassured the public, amidst growing protests over plus one admissions in Malappuram district, stating that there is no shortage of seats. Addressing the media, he said that Malappuram has 21,550 vacant seats, including unaided ones, while only 14,037 students have applied for admission. Even excluding unaided seats, there are 11,083 vacancies.

The breakdown of school seats in Malappuram includes 5,745 merit seats, 365 sports seats, 3,759 community seats, 5,091 management seats, and 10,467 unaided seats, totaling 21,550 seats. Currently, 49,909 students have secured admission, leaving 10,897 yet to be admitted despite allocation.

Across Kerala, there are 1,18,337 plus one seats, with 44,687 in unaided schools. Excluding these, there remain 73,650 seats. The minister highlighted that only 26,995 applications have been received Statewide.

MSF protests by locking DGE office

Protests intensified as MSF members locked the office of the Director of General Education (DGE), expressing dissent over the seat allocation issue. Director S Shanavas was absent at the time of the protest when demonstrators vandalised a board bearing his name.

The protest followed Minister Sivankutty's media briefing, where he refuted claims of the seat crisis. The protesters alleged the presence of discrepancy in the minister's statistics. There was no police security during the time as the protest was unexpected.