Kasaragod: The Chief Minister's Mega Quiz, billed as an exercise to enhance general knowledge among school and college students, has triggered sharp criticism across Kerala after its questions appeared to double up as a promotional brochure for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his government.

An analysis of the 30 questions posed in the school-level preliminary round shows that 21 were directly linked to the achievements of Left Democratic Front (LDF) governments over the years. But of these, as many as 16 revolved around policies, announcements or projects of the Pinarayi Vijayan governments between 2016 and 2026. By contrast, achievements of towering figures such as E M S Namboodiripad were reduced to two questions, one of which he had to share with Congress's R Shankar. E K Nayanar, who was the longest serving Chief Minister, received two, and V S Achuthanandan one. The Congress-led UDF governments, which ruled Kerala alternately, found three questions linked to their governance.

"The quiz is not to test the knowledge of the students but to boost the image of Pinarayi Vijayan," said Vattappara Anil Kumar, treasurer of the Kerala Pradesh School Teachers' Association (KPSTA), which is affiliated to the Congress. KPSTA and Kerala Private College Teachers' Association, also affiliated to the UDF, boycotted the quiz.

Several questions were framed in a way critics say made the propaganda evident. A straightforward geography query, where does NH 66 end in Thiruvananthapuram was posed as- 'The National Highway 66, which has been delayed several times but is now being completed at a rapid pace, is 600 km from Kasaragod to Talapady in Kerala. At which place in Thiruvananthapuram does this road end?' 

Another question asked who announced that Kerala had become the first state free of extreme poverty on November 1, 2025. If any student did not know how to spell Pinarayi Vijayan, the next question solved their dilemma. "The cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in October 2025 again increased the social security pension. How much is the monthly social security pension currently received by eligible individuals?

Allies, too, were accommodated. Kerala Congress (B) leader Ganesh Kumar's KSRTC-linked 'Chalo' app got a question. The Karunya Benevolent Fund, conceived by the late K M Mani when he was with the UDF but now politically useful after his party joined the LDF, also got a question. IUML leader M K Muneer's She Taxi found space, even though it was launched under the Oommen Chandy government. Beyond these, the Congress's long line of chief ministers- K Karunakaran, A K Antony, Oommen Chandy- were largely erased from the narrative. Only five questions were genuinely unrelated to politics.

The response on campuses reflected the disquiet. At Payyannur College, only 15 of nearly 3,000 students attended the quiz. At St Pius X College in Kasaragod's Rajapuram, just four students turned up. "After teachers boycotted the programme, the principal had to conduct the quiz himself," said Shino P Jose, state secretary of the Kerala Private College Teachers' Association (KPCTA).

The KPCTA and the KPSTA have both called it a misuse of public funds and institutional authority. KPCTA president and teacher at Payyanur College, Premachandran Keezhoth, said that the valuation camps at MG University were suspended and regular classes disrupted to facilitate what he described as a public relations exercise.

KPSTA state president Abdul Majeed warned that Kerala had seen this before. "When politically loaded content was pushed into classrooms during the DPEP period, students fled to unaided private schools," he said. "Using children to meet political ends, especially in January, February and March, when students from Classes 8 to 12 are preparing for final exams, is unacceptable."

The associations warned that they would not tolerate covert attempts to turn the general education system, or children themselves, into instruments for political mileage. Kerala's students, Majeed said, are perfectly capable of telling the difference between learning and propaganda. "If the government had even an iota of genuine concern for general education, it would not have gone down this path."

That, then, is the choice before students: spend their time guessing the full form of LIFE Mission- or simply get a life.