Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Education service panel mooted

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Appointment of teachers to aided colleges in the State should be made by an Education Service Commission modelled on the lines of the Public Service Commission, the committee on formulation of a State policy on higher education has suggested. The committee headed by educationist U.R. Ananthamurthy, set up by the State Higher Education Council, met here on Friday.

In future all appointments of teachers to aided colleges including those made in the community quota, and preferably unaided colleges too, should be based on merit and the candidates drawn from a list prepared by the Education Service Commission. An examination can also be conducted to prepare such a list, the committee suggested.

Instead of granting autonomy to individual colleges, the committee favoured granting of academic autonomy to the proposed clusters of colleges.

Dr. Ananthamurthy reportedly told the meeting that he favoured the “production of knowledge in the language of the State making use of all facilities in foreign languages.” Though English should be taught from standard one, Universities should make Malayalam their medium of instruction and should allow doctoral thesis to be written in Malayalam, the committee has suggested.

There should be a uniform fee for courses offered by universities in the State and the individual educational institutions should take up the responsibility of arranging scholarships for students from poor families. Admissions to colleges must be done strictly on the basis of merit.

Those who govern universities should be academicians with at least 15 years of teaching experience. A person who is being considered for the post of principal or head of department should necessarily have a doctoral degree. College councils should be expanded to include representatives of students and non-teaching staff, the committee has suggested.

The committee decided to prepare a vision statement on the basis of Friday’s deliberations and the consequent suggestions.

A draft report on the formulation of a state policy on higher education will be prepared in December.

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