Kerala education sector yet to get Rs 1,500 cr funds from Centre: Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Wednesday said that everyone has to unite to ensure the state gets the Rs 1,500 crore from the Centre meant for its public education sector.

Speaking at a meeting of student organisations, convened to discuss the issue, Sivankutty claimed that the Centre has withheld the funds, including for the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) initiative, on the ground that the state did not sign the PM Shri scheme, a statement issued by the minister's office said.

The minister said that various steps, including legal action, were being considered to get the funds as two meetings with the Union Education Minister to seek allocation of the funds had no results.

He said that Kerala has not accepted the PM Shri scheme as one of the requirements was to implement the various recommendations in the National Education Policy with which the state was not in agreement.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the minister said that powers and duties of the Governor and the period of Emergency that the country went through have been made a part of the syllabus.

He said that, as announced earlier by the government, the role of the Governor has been clearly mentioned under the heading -- 'Confrontations in the Indian Federal System' -- in the chapter titled 'Democracy as an Indian Experience' in the second part of the 10th class social science textbook.

The powers and duties of the governor are also clearly explained in it, he added.

Besides that, in the same chapter, under the title 'The Emergency: A Crisis in Indian Democracy', details of the Emergency period in 1975 have been mentioned, he said.