The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : ‘Schools must be under State control’

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Tuesday, Oct 23, 2007
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

‘Schools must be under State control’

Staff Reporter

Chandy says education policy should not change for every panchayat

‘Only areas such as infrastructure development should be handed over to local bodies’
‘Learning of English must in globalised world’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government should retain academic control of schools and should avoid a situation where there are different education policies for different panchayats in Kerala, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy has said.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the State-wide seminar on the Kerala Curriculum Framework-2007 organised by the SCERT here on Monday. The government should think again whether the State could afford to hand over schools to local self-government institutions. “We may have differences of opinion with M.A. Baby but we need only one education Minister,” Mr. Chandy said. Areas such as infrastructure development could be handed over to local bodies. However, the academic part should still be handled by the State government, he said.

Not practical

The Opposition leader said it may not be practical to bring under one umbrella all sections of general education in the State. “Is it wise to bring under one umbrella the primary, secondary, high school and higher secondary sections? Will the efficiency of each sector be not affected? Is it not better that they function in a decentralised manner? The government should think about all this,” he said.

It is very important that the State’s students learn English. In a globalised world the next generation could not be expected to confine themselves to Kerala. Once, after meeting captains of the IT industry, the Chief Minister gave an interview in which he pointed out that students from Kerala were very accomplished in all aspects except spoken English. Of course, English should be taught in such a manner that it took nothing away from the status of Malayalam in society. Similarly, it was very important that the State attained computer literacy, he said.

Any reform in the education sector should be brought about only after widespread discussions and after a consensus was reached on issues. Any reform introduced without consensus would run into trouble. This had been demonstrated time and again in the State, he added.

The Education Minister M.A. Baby presided over the inaugural session.

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