Thiruvananthapuram: Scarcity of plus-one seats is snowballing into a major row in Kerala with even the ruling CPI(M)'s student outfit too launching a stir against the government.
While plus-two classes commenced in Kerala on Monday, around 75,000 students, including those who secured high marks in SSLC, are yet to get suitable seats. The issue is worse in Malappuram district of north Kerala.
With the decision of ruling CPI(M)'s student outfit Students Federation of India (SFI) to launch a stir causing much embarrassment to the state government, Education minister V Sivankutty ridiculed that SFI could not stage any stir for quite sometime and hence they launched the stir.
Student outfits affiliated to the Congress and IUML were staging a stir over the last many days. On Tuesday Congress's student outfit Kerala Students' Union (KSU) has called for an education bandh in the state.
The education minister will be holding talks with representatives of student outfits on Monday.
Even as opposition parties are demanding that more seats should be allowed, the government could not consider it owing to the fiscal burden involved.
While 4.21 students applied for plus-one courses in Kerala, so far only around 3.17 secured admission. Around 75,000 students did not take admission as they did not receive courses of their choice. Of this, a major chunk of students are in Malappuram district.
Even as the government claims that there are over 4.3 lakh seats in various higher secondary schools as against the 4.25 lakhs who cleared the SSLC exams, north Kerala districts like Malappuram which have high population, are struggling with seat scarcity. Even students who secured A-plus in all subjects are struggling to get admission to desired courses in desired schools.
The high pass percentage being given in the SSLC examinations in Kerala over the last few years has led to the scarcity for plus-two seats. The government has been justifying that since there are adequate options in other courses like polytechnic. Already experts have voiced concerns over the quality of education deteriorating in Kerala.