Kerala government to allot temporary batches in Malabar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Education minister V Sivankutty on Tuesday said the govt would sanction additional temporary Plus One batches in Malabar districts to resolve the seat shortage. He also said a two-member committee would be appointed to study the crisis and additional batches would be sanctioned on the basis of its report.
The higher secondary joint director and Malappuram district education officer will be members of the committee, which has been asked to submit its report before July 5.Sivankutty announced these decisions at a meeting with student union leaders here. The opposition student organisations — KSU & MSF — were in the forefront of protests for weeks while SFI launched a protest in Malappuram on Monday.

‘Seven taluks in Mlpm have excess seats’
In The minister, who had been denying for days together that there was a crisis in these districts, said the seat shortage would be resolved once the supplementary allotment is completed.
"In Malappuram, there are 85 higher secondary schools in govt sector and 88 in the aided sector. As many as 66,024 students now pursue higher secondary courses in the district. An in-principle decision has been taken to sanction additional batches in Malappuram. Applications for supplementary allotment can be submitted from July 1-4," he said.
Sivankutty said the government was committed to ensuring admission to all eligible students. "In Malappuram, where protestors allege severe shortage of seats, schools in seven taluks have excess seats in science batches. There are 4,431 excess seats in science stream while humanities and commerce streams have a shortage of 3,816 and 3,405 seats respectively," he said.
KSU and MSF leaders welcomed the govt decision and said it was a victory for their protests. However, they said there were contradictions in the minister's claim about availability of seats in Malappuram district.
According to the minister, the total number of applicants in Malappuram is 82,466. The number of seats vacant in govt and aided schools in the district is 9,820 while the number of applicants in the wait list is 17,298, resulting in a shortage of 7,478 seats, he said.