Thiruvananthapuram: Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac seems to have kicked up a storm of controversy with his statement that the Left government wants the school managements to stop misinterpreting the Kerala Education Rules (KER) and making appointments of new teachers in his budget speech on February 7.
After the managements of aided schools in the state expressed disapproval of this move, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday warned them against appointment of teachers by providing inflated number of students and said the government can take over them, if needed.
Vijayan was responding to the reaction of some aided school managements to the suggestion made by the finance minister to regulate appointment of new teachers in such schools.
"I saw certain reactions of some managements (of aided schools) on TV today, asking the government to take over the schools. If that was a threat issued to the government, then let me tell you, we are ready to take over.
If we can pay salary to the teachers there, why can't we give some rent and manage the school," Vijayan said.
He also said that the budget suggestion was a warning to those managements engaged in the practice of appointing teachers by providing inflated number of students.
In the state budget presented on February 7, Isaac had allotted Rs 19,130 crore for education in the state.
Discrepancy in headcount
The state's Department of Education had discovered that there was a major discrepancy in the number of students writing the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination this year and the head count provided by the schools. The figures provided by 79 schools in a district were not tallying with the SSLC numbers, the department reported. Only a complete investigation of the 14 districts will reveal the scale of discrepancy.
In Thiruvananthapuram district, a government school included 100 fake names to the list of students.
The finance minister had suggested that the appointment of teachers in aided schools be in accordance with the state rules and warned against the showing inflated number of students for new appointments.
(With inputs from PTI.)
