A high-level meeting of Vice Chancellors (VCs) will be convened soon to discuss the latest issues in the self-financing college (SFC) sector and find out practical solutions at the earliest, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
Mr. Vijayan, who announced his plan during the inauguration of a smart classroom project in the Elathur Assembly constituency on Sunday, said the discussions would be held in the presence of Education Minister C. Ravindranath. It would come out with concrete decisions to alleviate the concerns of students, he said.
Coming down heavily against the functioning of some of the self-financing colleges in the State, the Chief Minister said the names of some of the colleges were creating a terror image in the minds of students.
“Such an unwanted development should not emerge in Kerala,” he said.
He said the name of Jawaharlal Nehru had evoked a lovable sentiment in the minds of students for long years, but that was not the case after the suicide of a student from a college that was bearing the name of Nehru.
“Many popular cartoon characters had the name Toms, but students are terrified on hearing that name now,” he said.
The Chief Minister, who openly expressed his dissent over the discouraging trends in the self-financing educational sector, said such poor developments from academic institutions would send a wrong signal to society. “The Left Democratic Front-led government is seriously looking at all the concerns in the sector and committed to find a possible solution,” he said.
Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran chaired the function that witnessed the opening of 69 smart classrooms in 50 selected government and aided schools in the constituency. The smart classrooms equipped with high-speed broadband connection, Ultra Short Throw LCD projectors, high definition screens, digital interfacing and digital cable connectivity to integrate different equipment were completed spending ₹1.27 crore.
