Oppn walkout on stalemate in edu sector

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 19: The Congress-led Opposition staged a walkout in the Kerala Assembly today alleging ''failure'' on the part of the government in ending the ''stalemate' in the professional education sector.

Replying to an adjournment motion sought to be moved by Mr K C Venugopal (Cong) in this regard, Education Minister M A Baby said there was no stalemate in admission to professional courses and the time for option for students had been extended.

He said online facilities had been introduced in all the districts for option and the admission process was going smoothly.

Referring to the Opposition allegation that the report of the Admission Regulatory Committee headed by Justice P A Mohammed had been shelved, Mr Baby said the report had been accepted by the Cabinet and steps were being taken on it.

The government was of the view that private self-financing professional colleges should not be allowed to conduct their own entrance examination for admission. The Cabinet would take appropriate decision in this regard, he added.

Mr Baby alleged that indiscriminate sanctioning of professional colleges in the private sector by the previous UDF government had created problems in the higher education sector. The LDF government enacted the new legislation to bring social control over such institutions, he said and added that no courts had stayed the Act.

Speaker K Radhakrishnan refused leave for the motion in the light of the Minister's reply.

Leading the walkout, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy said admission to professional courses was yet to be completed even after two and a half months, since the entrance examination results came out.

Uncertainty still continued and the government could not even enforce government fees in state-run self-financing professional colleges, he said and called for immediate steps to solve the crisis.

UNI