By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kozhikode: Higher studies options are continuing to become a question mark for the students of Malabar. Nearly 65 per cent students who have passed the higher secondary examinations in northern Kerala will have to opt for parallel methods for their higher studies due to the unavailability of enough seats.
When the higher secondary results came out, 1.33 lakh students were qualified for higher studies in the northern districts of Kasargode, Kannur, Wayanad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thrissur. However, there are only about half lakh seats for higher studies in the Calicut and Kannur universities. That means, about 80,000 students will have to go for indirect methods of education.
There are 32, 328 seats for graduate courses for arts and science subjects under the two universities in Malabar. The total number of seats for engineering, medical, ayurveda, nursing, pharmacy, paramedical, dental and homeopathic courses, Arabic colleges etc is reportedly below 15,000. That is, not even 50,000 seats are available in Malabar. Also, majority of the medical and engineering courses are run by self-financing institutions. Five of the seven medical colleges under the Calicut University are in the private sector.
The private sector is in the front in the number of seats of arts and science colleges too. The Kannur University has 53 arts and science colleges, among which 26 are un-aided, 12 aided and five are government colleges. There are a few applied colleges also. The Calicut University has 123 arts and science colleges. Un-aided colleges make up 58 of them, aided colleges come to 45 and government colleges are 19. All the 11 applied colleges are self-financing institutions.
Another option for those who have passed the higher secondary is the Teachers Training Course which offers more than 1000 seats. All the other students will have to depend upon distance education, private registration etc.
The lack of adequate facilities for higher education has now become a grave problem for Malabar. The area was earlier backward in education. But now Malabar is coming forward but they have no enough opportunities. Same is the case of the number of seats in higher secondary also. Around 2.35 lakh students have passed the 10th standard in Malabar but nearly half a lakh of students will not be able to study in the higher secondary, polytechnic, vocational higher secondary institutions etc in Malabar. The government increases the number of seats every year but the increase is not in conformity with the increase in the number of students passing exams.
This problem is indeed a major hindrance in the path of development of Malabar. Successive governments in the state have always had several ministers from Malabar, but that has not helped in solving the problem. Malabar has contributed several education ministers for the state. However, the state of education opportunities in Malabar is yet to have a big change.