Several organisations in the district are on a warpath demanding sufficient higher secondary seats for the students who passed the SSLC examination this year.
Nearly 80,000 students passed the SSLC examination in Malappuram this year. The number of students the higher secondary classes, polytechnics, and ITIs can accommodate will not be more than 42,000, rendering higher education inaccessible for nearly half of the qualified students.
Pointing out the higher secondary seat shortage in Malabar districts, particularly in Malappuram, and the excess seats in certain southern districts in the State, organisations like the Fraternity Movement, the Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation (SKSSF), the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) took out protests at different places.
Night march taken out
A night march taken out by the SKSSF at Malappuram on Saturday warned that they would intensify the agitation if the government did not heed the demand for more higher secondary batches. Several senior leaders of the student body, including its State president Syed Hameedali Shihab Thangal, took part in the night march.
“What we want is not a temporary solution. We don’t want extra seats, we want additional higher secondary batches to address the glaring seat shortage in Malabar,” said Mr. Thangal.
The Fraternity Movement staged a protest against the government neglecting Malappuram. The protest named Malappuram Memorial declared that the fight against the neglect would continue until the government addresses the seat imbalance.
Hajara Variyamkunnath, grand-daughter of Malabar Rebellion leader Variyamkunnath Kunhahamed Haji, inaugurated the protest. She said the protest would not end until the government introduced additional higher secondary batches.
League’s demand
Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty too demanded that the government address the seat shortage in Malappuram. A discussion on the seat shortage organised by a local television channel at Kottakkal ended in a clash between the workers of the IUML and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]. The police had to intervene to disperse the agitated workers.
When all schools in Malabar have more than 50 students in the higher secondary classes, analysts point out that there are 93 higher secondary batches in southern districts with hardly 25 students. As many as 31 of them are in Pathanamthitta, 19 in Ernakulam, 18 in Alappuzha, 11 in Idukki, seven in Kollam, six in Thrissur, and one in Thiruvananthapuram.
The imbalance shows that in some schools in southern districts, a student with 75% marks can get an admission to a science class, whereas in Malabar, students with more than 90% marks alone can make it for science.
BJP State executive member K.K. Surendran on Sunday demanded that the government address the seat shortage for higher secondary studies. He said it was the responsibility of the government to ensure higher secondary seats for those passing the SSLC examination.
