Kerala Prepares to Take Public Schools to New Heights

The Kerala government has announced more steps to strengthen infrastructure and improve teaching in public schools in the State.

Detailed project documents for infrastructure development in 138 schools have been submitted to the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the State government's Special Purpose Vehicle for mobilising and channelling funds to various infrastructure projects.

KIIFB has given permission to go ahead with the projects in 113 schools, and permission for the rest is expected to be granted soon. Project details for another 117 schools would be submitted to KIIFB by December.

The planned infrastructure development in public schools is scheduled to be completed by January 2019.

Administrative sanction has been given for setting up biodiversity parks in 1200 public schools, and 761 schools have been given initial grants for the purpose.

An evaluation meeting presided over by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has decided to ensure at least 200 teaching days and 1000 teaching hours per year in the public schools in the State.

A baseline survey to assess the standards of education has been done under the aegis of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). Separate programmes to improve standards in reading, mathematics, science and languages have been formulated.

Each school is to prepare an academic masterplan, which has to be ready by 30 January 2018.

45,000 “high tech” classrooms would be set up in 4775 schools. Orders have been placed for 60,250 laptops and 4,375 projectors for the purpose.

The plans to strengthen public education are part of the Education Rejuvenation Mission which is a key constituent of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's Nava Keralam Karma Paddhathi (New Kerala Mission).

The Education Rejuvenation Mission is intended to extend the advances made by the state, from universalisation of education to modernisation of education, with smart classrooms, digital libraries, IT enabled learning and contemporary syllabus. The mission aims to solve the existing problems and inadequacies in public education today.

The Mission aims to raise 1000 schools to "international standards". According to the order issued in November 2016 outlining the mission, five schools in each district are supposed to achieve this within two years of the start of the mission.

All classrooms at the high school and higher secondary levels are to be turned into "high-tech" class rooms. This is to be completed within two years after the start of the mission.

Public schools would be upgraded with the cooperation of the Parent-Teachers' Associations and alumni associations. School libraries and laboratories are to be modernised, and school campuses which are free of plastics, pesticides and intoxicants are to be created.

The very month that the Education Rejuvenation Mission began, the LDF government took over a government-aided school in Malaparamba in Kozhikode district, which its owner had tried to close down claiming that it was "uneconomical". The move became symbolic of the efforts to protect and strengthen public education in the State. The previous Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government had decided to close down the Malaparamba school on the basis of the request from its manager, who claimed that it is "unviable" for him to run the school.

The Education Rejuvenation Mission has outlined learning objectives which seek to ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills commensurate with the classes they are in.

Apart from knowledge of the subjects, the mission also aims to improve the students’ social consciousness, knowledge of the environment, and extra-curricular skills. Knowledge and skills to communicate in at least three languages is to be ensured. Counselling facilities are to be created for school children.

The mission seeks to reduce dropout rates. Students belonging to backward and marginalised sections would be given special attention and benefits to bring them up to the mainstream.

The mission also states that there have to be democratic bodies to monitor the functioning of public schools. The involvement of local government bodies would be crucial in this.

While Kerala's achievements in the field of education have been widely lauded, concerns had been raised in the recent years that parents are increasingly sending their children to unaided private schools rather than to government or government-aided private schools. Government-aided private schools are schools which are run by private managements, but they receive government grants, their teachers are paid salaries by the government, and their fees are almost as low as government schools.

While the absolute number of students in all categories of schools have been going down as the State's population growth rate has declined, the percentage of students enrolled in government and government-aided schools in the State came down from 89.27% in 2015-16 to 88.7% in 2016-17.

But the LDF government's efforts to upgrade public education seem to be bearing fruit already. This year (2017-18), even the absolute number of students in government and government-aided schools increased. In Std. I alone, there was an increase of 5703 students in government schools and an increase of 6495 students in government-aided schools. In Std. V, there was an increase of 40,385 students in government and government-aided schools, while in Std. VIII, there was an increase of 30,083 students. This magnitude of increase had occurred after the gap of a decade.