The Hindu : B.Ed. colleges: Soopy may find the going tough in House

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 19, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

B.Ed. colleges: Soopy may find the going tough in House

By Roy Mathew

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 18. The Education Minister, Nalakath Soopy, will find the going tough on the B.Ed. colleges issue as the Assembly begins debate on Monday.

Already the High Court is scrutinising the entire procedure like norms adopted and marks awarded by the expert committee in selection of the colleges for issue of no-objection certificates (NOCs). Protests are taking place leading to the Minister cancelling some of his public functions. Some of the organisations which had applied for NOCs, including the Metropolitan of Jacobite Syrian Church, Yuhannon Mar Philexinos, had openly stated that the Indian Union Muslim League leaders had demanded bribes for issue of NOCs.

Members shouted slogans and displayed bills and banners in the Assembly demanding the resignation of the Minister during the address by the Governor to the Assembly. The Opposition demanded that a judicial inquiry be ordered into the whole issue. Their demand and criticism are bound to be more strident as the House debates the Motion of Thanks to the Governor for his address.

Mr. Soopy had found himself rather isolated in the ruling United Democratic Front on the issue though he claims the Chief Minister and Ministers had approved of his move to issue NOCs over and above the number okayed by the Cabinet. According to Mr. Soopy, he was under tremendous pressure from the applicants and politicians.

However, faced with legal scrutiny, the Cabinet not only nullified the NOCs issued without its approval, but also decided to withdraw 11 NOCs issued with its approval. The Minister had hardly any among his Cabinet colleauges to support him openly on the issue.

Even from within the Muslim League, local leaders are approaching the court seeking redress. The selection of applicants for issue of NOCs, they say, was done in an arbitrary manner.

In fact, Mr. Soopy is alleged to have tried to issue more than three dozen NOCs to applicants from his own district last October. When the Secretary for Higher Education, Asha Thomas, did not favour that, she was removed from the post. Then, the list of colleges was cleared through an expert committee of officials. The Government had received 291 applications for colleges and 190 applicants remained after scrutiny of documents submitted by them.

Following complaints about the manner in which the applications were being processed, the High Court had directed that only 75 colleges need be given clearance as the Government itself had admitted that this was the real requirement in the State. (It is notable that the State Planning Board had in the past recommended against starting of more B.Ed. colleges). However, the Education Department went on to issue 96 whereas the Cabinet approval was for 75.

Even after the Cabinet reduced this number to 64, justification for giving NOCs to many of them are still in doubt. Petitioners before the High Court had complained that their applications were rejected despite their having the necessary facilities. On the other hand, many of those who got the NOCs were not having even minimum facilities.

Several of the colleges who got through had not even got the University affiliation though they were supposed to start the courses this academic year itself. The starting of the courses at this time of the year itself is against the University statutes and rules. A bigger question is whether the State needs that many trained teachers. Mr. Soopy argues that they could find jobs outside the State. However, there surely is a limit to how many could find jobs in other States or abroad. In any case, the State is in for a B.Ed.-holders' boom.

(Mr. Soopy is alleged to have made a move to reduce the teacher-student ratio in schools to cater to the B.Ed. colleges. However, he denied such a move.)

Proponents of sanctioning of self-financing colleges in large numbers argue that market competition would ultimately establish the equilibrium. However, it is to be seen how many victims the system would create before the survival of the fittest happens.

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