Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘Fair selection of teachers vital’

M.A. Baby

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Education Minister M.A. Baby has defended the recommendations of the C.P. Nair- headed Kerala Education Act and Rules (KEAR) Revision Commission saying that fairness in selection of teachers is vital to augment the quality of education.

Participating in a discussion on ‘Building excellence in education’ organised as part of the annual convention of the Trivandrum Management Association (TMA) here on Thursday, the Minister said there was no basis for the criticisms against the committee’s recommendation to constitute an independent legal body to recruit teachers to the aided schools.

Since the quality of teachers was an important parameter which would determine standards of education, it was vital to ensure that they were recruited as per certain standards devised to achieve excellence in education sector, he said. “How can a teacher who obtained his job by paying Rs.8 lakh go to the class rooms to impart ethical values to the students,” he wondered.

Mr. Baby alleged that vested interests were trying to thwart any initiative to achieve excellence in education in the State and collective efforts were required to resist such heinous attempts. He said no centre of excellence was being set up in the State because of various reasons including unnecessary controversies. The Tatas had originally wanted to set up the Indian Institute of Science in Kerala, but the then Divan wrote to the Maharaja that it would be difficult to provide such large areas of land free considering the population density and land shortage in the State. The Maharaja of Mysore then quickly offered the land to the Tatas and the institute was set up in Bangalore. More recently, the proposal to set up the Indian Institute of Space Sciences in the State was getting delayed because of the controversies related to the allocation of land.

Mr. Baby said even though the new Five Year Plan of the Centre had made drastic hike in the allocation of funds to the education sector, it was important to ensure that the States like Kerala were not deprived of its benefits. The Plan seeks to hike the gross enrolment ratio to 15 per cent from eight per cent at the national level. However, the States like Kerala had already achieved higher levels in this regard. But this should not be used as an alibi to deny the allocation to the States like Kerala. Not only Kerala but majority of the South Indian States would be affected badly if the Centre decided to give the increased educational allocation only to those States which lagged behind in gross enrolment ratio. Such backward States must definitely get priority. But those who had advanced must be given incentives to consolidate their gains and progress further, he argued.

Chancellor of the National Law School N.R. Madhava Menon, Additional Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Krishna Kumar, and IT expert G. Vijayaraghavan were among those who spoke on the occasion.

Earlier, inaugurating a discussion on the ‘Government policy,’ Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran said the government could only play the role a facilitator in industrial development and entrepreneurs should not be unduly dependent on concessions and subsidies.

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