MA Khader report to get legal muscle
The national skill qualification framework by the central government had wanted such a merger.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has decided to introduce an ordinance to bring classes from one to 12 under a single directorate. The draft of the ordinance based on the M.A. Khader committee report is now under the consideration of the law department. Later, it will be placed before the cabinet for approval.
The decision to unify the directorate of higher secondary education and director of public instruction had been opposed by the teachers unions in the higher secondary sector. Former DPI K. Jeevan Babu has been appointed as director of general education integrating the posts of higher secondary director and director of public instruction.
The higher secondary directorate has been merged with the department of public instruction and the vocational higher secondary stream with the higher secondary stream. The national skill qualification framework by the central government had wanted such a merger.
The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had merged the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) to form the Samgra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Central assistance will be available only if high school and higher secondary sections are unified under one authority.
The present system of multiple heads – a headmaster or headmistress for the school and a principal for the higher secondary school-- will go with the introduction of the new system. Moreover, the name of the post has been formally fixed as principal (lower primary), principal (upper primary) and principal (secondary).
Though the Right to Education Act proposed one to eight as primary and nine to 12 as secondary, the committee decided not to change the present pattern of primary classes till class seven as it would cause a lot of problems.