Palakkad: More than half of the higher secondary Plus-One (Class 11) seats in 108 schools in Kerala remain vacant. These are mostly in the schools in Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam districts.

Meanwhile, vacant seats have been reported in less than five schools from Thrissur to Kasargod. In Kozhikode, Malappuram and Wayanad districts, vacant seats are in just one school each.

In Kottayam, there are 22 schools where students haven’t secured admission even in half of the seats. In Alappuzha and Ernakulam, 15 schools have vacant seats while students haven’t occupied seats in 19 schools in Pathanamthitta. In most schools, there aren’t even 25 students in a class. While students are eager to secure admission in the schools in the cities, seats remain vacant in the schools in rural areas. In 2021, more than half of the seats in 118 schools in the state were unoccupied.

As per the special rule, at least 50 students should be admitted in a class. While there are batches in more than one hundred schools that do not even have 25 students, there are many schools with batches that have up to 65 students. Interestingly, most of these are in northern Kerala.

The committee that was appointed to study about the problems in the higher secondary department had suggested that the guideline to admit only 50 students in a batch should be strictly followed. The committee also suggested that the vacant seats in the southern districts should be transferred to districts like Malappuram. However, teachers point out that if the batches are reduced in the southern districts as there aren’t enough students, it would create difficulties for those in the rural and tribal areas.

Teaching posts haven’t yet been created in in the 34 batches in the 27 government schools and 25 batches in the 25 aided schools that were started in 2014. The posts would be created only if at least 50 students seek admission in each batch for three consecutive years. In the eight aided schools, 50 students had secured admission in the last three years. However, teaching posts have been created only in two schools.