Plus Two: authorities deny manipulation

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 30. The authorities have denied any manipulation in the drawing up of the fresh list of schools that were sanctioned Plus Two courses this year.

The fresh list, drawn up under a directive from the High Court, came under a cloud with the Kerala Congress(Jacob) leader, Mr. T. M. Jacob, and others alleging that the recommendations of the district-level committees on the physical infrastructure available with the applicant schools had been tampered with.

The fact that the processing of the recommendations and the drawing up of the fresh list were done in a not so transparent manner confounded matters. Now the authorities have come out with little more details about what exactly had transpired at the Secretariat level. According to them, problems cropped up because at least a few districts had not given clear- cut recommendations in some cases. This was despite directives from the Government that the committees should state whether they were recommending a school or not in clear terms.

The Secretary (General Education), Mr. K. Jayakumar, said that the only Plus Two school sanctioned by the Government without a specific recommendation by the district-level committee was the K.V. Sanskrit High School at Muthukulam in Alappuzha district. In that case, the committee had pointed out several factors in favour of sanctioning of the school, but had left the final decision to the Government. The Government decided in its favour. Another such case related to the Pambakuda school in Ernakulam district. In that case, the Government had rejected the application.

The committees had recommended nearly 600 high schools. ``All the schools recommended could not be selected. However, all the schools selected have been duly recommended (except in the single case of the Muthukulam school),'' Mr. Jayakumar asserted.

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Section  : Southern States
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