Even as the fear of losing jobs looms large on a section of teaching faculties, the Kerala ministry is expected to interfere in reinstating the relaxation accorded to the teacher-student ratio in the 9, and 10 classes. The file submitted to restore the relaxation reached the finance ministry from the education ministry 4 days ago.
The finance ministry is likely to oppose citing the financial crunch. If that is the case, they might have to resort to politics to restore the relaxed ratio. And later submit the file to the ministry and get permission for the relaxation. If the decision is the opposite jobs of at least 4000 teachers will be in jeopardy.
According to the Kerala education rule, the teacher-student ratio for 9,10 classes is 1:45. But since 1997, they are following the 1:40 ratio. In 2018-19, the state government had ordered a 1:45 ratio for 9.10 classes. But owing to Covid the rule never got implemented. So currently the education department is planning to safeguard the jobs of teachers by re-implementing the 1:40 ratio.
They send the file to the finance department as such a ruling will cause a heavy financial burden. Though they haven’t made a decision regarding the file, sources at the financial department dismiss any talks of stalling the file which was sent 4 days ago.