Kerala sees a steep increase in student enrollment in govt schools

Kozhikode/ Thiruvananthapuram: The state government is rejoicing over the fact that for the first time in a decade, the State’s public education sector has witnessed a steep increase in the enrollment of students to its schools.  There has been a consequent decline of students opting for schools in the private sector.

In class 1 alone, there has been an increase of 12,198 students this year, thanks to the campaigns undertaken by the Government with the help of several government agencies to promote public education.

CBSE school managements and organizations in the State accuse the State Government of deliberately trying to tarnish the reputation of CBSE schools and their functioning, with a hidden agenda to promote the state’s education system.

The publicity given by the media that Government agencies had pumped in crores for infrastructure development of government schools had led to students choosing the public sector over the private sector, M.Abdul Nazar, Treasurer of All Kerala CBSE Sahodaya School Complex said. Moreover this year, due to elections in 5 states, examinations were delayed which disturbed parents and that ultimately resulted in a shift to Government Schools.

Giving the status of students’ enrollment in Government and aided schools, DPI KV Mohan Kumar said, “The overall student strength in the State-syllabus schools has increased sharply with 1,57,406  new students in aided and government schools  when the sixth day verification process was completed on Friday”.

The total number of students in state syllabus schools stood at 36,80,740. Apart from that, 1,45,208 students joined in classes II to nine from other syllabus schools. The increase in students in schools at fifth standard was 40,385 while in eighth standard it was 30,083.

The highest number of students was in Malappuram district with 7,17,697 while Pathanamthitta had the lowest number of students with 86,214 students. Of the total students, 56 per cent were enrolled in Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts. Thrissur had the highest number of new students with 7,581 in all classes put together, he added.

M.Abdul Nazar said, “We admit that there has been a depletion of students this year to CBSE schools and it may also affect the admission of higher secondary levels”. He added that the work of the Teachers Union and social organizations in campaigning for the Government’s “fake promises” and publicizing the growth of public education system in the State helped.

“But this increase is temporary because people will surely opt for quality education,” he added. The CBSE stream enabled students to compete in professional courses and especially the introduction of NEET UG emphasized the relevance of the CBSE curriculum, Mr Nasar pointed out.

“Quality education provided by CBSE is still relevant and hence the hype of the State Government about its education system is temporary. They will never be able to show consistency in the enrollment of students. By next year itself, parents will start opting for CBSE over state syllabus, for its assured quality in education”, said M Radhakrishnan, member of Sahodaya School complex.
 Education Minister Prof C Raveendranath talking to DC said that the Government was extremely happy to see more parents preferring their wards to study in the Government’s education system. “In these five years of our tenure, the mission is to promote the state’s public education to international standards and give everyone quality education,” he said.

IT@school executive director K Anvar Sadath told Deccan Chronicle that the reason for the sudden increase in the number of students was the new confidence among parents following the general education rejuvenation mission of the state government.

One of the reasons why the parents had been reluctant to admit students to aided and government schools was the lack of confidence. This could be overcome by the campaign. The parents were also enthused by the technological interventions. This can be understood by the statistics of first standard admissions. The number of students admitted to first standard had gone down last year by 4,000. However, this year, it increased by about 12,000, Mr Sadath said.

But blaming the government for “intimidating” CBSC schools, education expert M Johnson said, “Due to the delay in examination results, the government deliberately declared May 22 as the last date for the higher secondary allotment”. But CBSE organizations here approached court and quashed the government decision. This shows the government’s attitude towards other national syllabuses”. Later, the Division Bench also stood by the CBSE’s stand and declared that allotments be called only three working days after the declaration of CBSE results, he added.