Times News Network
Thiruvananthapuram: During academic year 2017-18, as many as 1,23,630 students – ranging from class I to X -- were not willing to disclose their caste or religion while being admitted to various government and govt-aided schools across the state. Education minister C Raveendranath, who disclosed this in the state assembly on Wednesday, said that the number of students who left the column related to caste and religion blank this year was a record high. These students belonged to 9,209 government and aided schools in the state and constitute around 2% of school students in Kerala. A consolidated figure could be arrived at this year as details of admissions were recorded through Sampoorna software instead of manually tabulating it in all education districts.
However, director of public instruction K V Mohankumar injected a cautionary note regarding this data, saying that it doesn’t necessarily reflect a ‘progressive’ mindset. “Based on court orders, it is no longer mandatory for students to mention their caste or religion. As a result, schools cannot compel anyone to mention their caste now. Hence these students may have chosen not to mention it,’’ he said.
Ajay Kumar, executive director of Rights, an NGO working for upliftment of dalits, also voiced certain reservations on what the data implied. “It is easy for the privileged to sacrifice caste while dalits can’t do that. It has been only 60 years since dalits in Kerala have accessed education. Even today, they are not in a position to sacrifice their legitimate rights”, he said.
Incidentally, in higher secondary classes the number took a nose-dive – just 517 students chose not to reveal their caste or religion during admission. Of this, 278 students were admitted to plus one and 239 students to plus two courses. Not one student chose to remain mum about caste and religion in the vocational higher secondary stream. However, education department officials said the low number might be because the SSLC certificate was usually the basic document for enrolling students to class XI and changing the caste / religion details already given there was a tedious process.
Parents of several students who chose not to mention caste / religion took to social media to trumpet it. Rejimon Kuttapan, a consultant with International Labour Organisation, said he didn’t add caste in the admission register of both his kids. ``I believe that education should be secured through skill and not through any kind of reservation. If my child is not good enough in studies then he will find another way to live,’’ he said.
Noted writer Sara Joseph welcomed the decision of more parents to guide their children along a ‘casteless’ path. “Those who don’t disclose caste won’t make any profit. They will have only losses, yet they chose it. We should appreciate that. I think the majority of parents who don’t disclose caste are into inter caste marriage”, she said.
