In the ongoing state conference of the CPI(M) in Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has presented a draft policy for Kerala development. A highlight of the draft policy is the proposal for massive private investment in the state’s higher education sector. Vijayan is pushing for privatisation of higher education at a time the CPI(M) in West Bengal is protesting against setting up new schools under PPP model.
It says Kerala has to become a hub of higher education. It calls for establishing new centres of higher education and excellence. At present the gross enrolment ratio in Kerala’s higher education sector is 37 per cent. The draft says it should be increased to 50 per cent in the next five years. That target calls for establishing new higher education centres in Kerala. Strengthening the existing higher education centres, academically as well as infrastructurally, would not be sufficient, the draft policy says. New huge educational institutions should come up in the government sector, private sector and co-operative sector, it adds, mooting such higher educational institutions under the PPP model. The draft has not specifically mentioned private universities and says the government should have a firm control over the higher education sector, ensuring social justice.
Once a strong opponent of privatisation of the professional education sector, the CPI(M) slowly changed over the last decade. It has been depicted as a change in tune with times and growing middle class aspirations in Kerala where small-sized families were willing to invest in children’s professional education. The CPI(M), which led violent protests against the first medical college in the co-operative sector, later took the same route to build up a professional education empire in Kerala. It also came to light that wards of several senior CPI(M) leaders were studying in self-financing colleges. The opening up of the higher education sector in Kerala has led to huge investment in Kerala. Although there is no official data, the higher education sector over the recent years has emerged as one of the single largest investment avenues in the state, where the manufacturing sector has been growing only at 1.5 per cent over the last decade. A major chunk of these self-financing colleges are minority institutions. If Christian churches once dominated the state’s higher education, opening up the self-financing education sector helped Muslims gain upon the former in terms of number of institutions. Several NRI-backed groups had invested in the state’s higher education sector too. Most of the new institutions have come up in the hinterlands of Kerala, leading to a makeover of the economic profile of many villages and empowered women in particular. School education in Kerala has seen a tremendous change over the recent years. School infrastructure has been upgraded and as many as 141 higher secondary schools have been made ‘centres of excellence’ using the KIIFB fund of Rs 5 crore each. Infrastructural facilities in 395 schools have been upgraded with the allocation of KIIFB funds of Rs 3 crore each. However, the performance of the State in higher education is not as impressive as in the case of school education. The main problems related to higher education in Kerala are quality, cost and graduate unemployment level. The enrolment in higher secondary education in 2020-21 had been 3.81 lakh, which was down at 3.32 lakh at the college level. This has created a situation conducive for more investment in emerging areas of education in the state.
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