Kerala government boasts the highest literacy every other day. Despite several claims of a 100% literacy rate by the state, the current situation in Kerala’s Wayanad depicts contradictory results. The state is going through major crises as the shortage of seats in Kerala this year for students passing out of class 10 has been witnessed.
Literacy crisis in Kerala:
The patience of Kerala’s Communist government is running thin as the reports have indicated towards the literacy crises in the state. With the opposition staging walkouts and media reporting over the issue, the students from Wayanad are facing an uphill battle to get educated even during normal times.
According to reports, the tribal students in the state’s Wayanad have been witnessing this problem for nearly a decade. More than 4,500 tribal students seeking class 11 seats in Wayanad have been made to sit at their homes with no seats for further education. Around 6,000-7,000 tribal students pass the SSLC exam every year and one-third of these students are from Wayanad.
Data suggests that more than 2,000 tribal students had cleared class 10 last year in Wayanad. However, in what can be seen as a shocking move, the government has allocated only five hundred twenty-nine seats for ST aspirants for the 2020-21 academic year. Thus, it can be assumed that hundreds of tribal students discontinue studies after class 10 just from Wayanad.
Divyamani, a student who passed class 10 in 2020, while interacting with the media, has asserted, “I was expecting to get a seat and study further. Now I’m sitting at home doing nothing in particular.”
“In the last two years, around 20 students from Palakolli and Marakavu didn’t get admission for class 11,” Bindu Narayanan, a teacher of Grameena Vidya Kendram (a village school) in Palakolli and an inhabitant of the hamlet, said.
“Every year at least 500 students are left out due to the inadequate seat allocation for the ST category. The class 11 admission process for this year has been going on and how many students are denied seats will be clear only after the process is over,” Geethanandan tells TNM.
Kerala’s 100% literacy rate is false:
According to a survey by the National Statistical Office, Kerala emerged as the most literate state in India with a literacy rate of 96.2% in 2020. The report titled “Household Social Consumption on Education in India”, released by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, had provided state-wise details of education among people above the age of seven.
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However, these claims appear to be false as the situation in Wayanad clearly depicts that there exists a severe literacy crisis in the state. Well, it is now evident that Kerala is struggling with employment as well as various social issues including child marriage on the backdrop of illiteracy in the state.
Now the question arises that if one particular area of the state is suffering this much because of a horrible education system, what could be the scenario of the whole state? Why did the state keep lying about the literacy rate? Are the reports portraying Kerala as a literate state being manipulated?
However, the Kerala government, instead of running political and religious propaganda, needs to work in the direction of eradicating these issues from the state. It needs to improve the educational structure rather than glorifying its literacy rate which, however, is proved to be false.