The New Indian Express: Thiruvanathapuram:
Saturday, April 19, 2014.
According to information furnished by the Directorate of HSE under the RTI, Malappuram district had the maximum number of vacant Plus-Two seats. |
The
government has often claimed that acute shortage of Plus-Two seats in Malabar
region was one of the reasons that prompted it go ahead with the creation of
over 34,000 additional Plus-Two seats.
However,
statistics accessed through Right to Information (RTI) has revealed just the
opposite.
According to
information furnished by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education under
the RTI, Malappuram district had the maximum number of vacant Plus-Two
seats - 4,762 - in the 2013-14 academic
year.
Even if only
vacant merit seats were considered, the northern districts of Kasargod and
Kannur topped the chart.
While
Kasargod reported 459 vacant Plus-Two seats, there were no takers for 404
Plus-Two merit seats in Kannur.
“These
statistics clearly prove the claim of imbalance of Plus-Two seats in Malabar is
a myth. Though the government says that first preference will be given to the
upgradation of state-run high schools into higher secondary, we suspect that
most of these new Plus-Two batches will
land in the kitty of private managements,’’ said S Manoj, state secretary of
Aided Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association.
The
government recently won a favourable verdict from the High Court which okayed
its decision to set up around 680 new Plus-Two batches.
These
includes 148 panchayats which did not have a Higher Secondary School and also
new additional batches, mostly in Malabar region.
The
government’s move to sanction additional Plus-Two batches also comes at a time
when the number of SSLC pass-outs dropped by over 13,000 this year when compared
to the previous year.
While 4.51
lakh students cleared the SSLC exam in 2013, the number decreased to 4.42 lakh
this year. This despite the pass percentage increasing by 1.3 per cent.
“Yes. There is shortage of seats in some
areas, but setting up Plus-Two schools in places where there are no such
schools is the government’s policy which even the court has found reasonable,’’
Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb told ‘Express’. Interestingly, while 5.11 lakh candidates
applied for Higher Secondary courses last year, only 3.56 lakh actually took
admission to 3.81 lakh seats, leaving over 25,000 seats vacant.