Benchmark Blues

Time of India

3 days ago

The govt's plan to do away with backbenches and other flashy reforms mask crumbling schools, falling enrolment and declining learning outcomes
Kerala's general education sector, long celebrated for its progressive policies, is at a crossroads.
Faced with crumbling infrastructure, declining enrolment and slipping academic standards, the state's education department has rolled out a series of eye-catching reforms—changing school lunch menus, proposing to shift summer vacations to the monsoon and now, a plan to eliminate backbenches from classrooms.
Yet amid the fanfare, critics argue they are little more than distractions from the systemic crises plaguing the sector.
The timing of these proposals has raised eyebrows. In the final year of the LDF govt's tenure, as schools grapple with unsafe buildings collapsing during monsoons and studies reveal worsening learning outcomes, the focus on seating arrangements and vacation schedules feels, to many, like misplaced priorities.
The numbers tell a sobering story. The annual status of education report (ASER) 2024 revealed alarming trends in the state's govt schools.
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Enrollment among children aged 6-14 plummeted from 64.5% in 2022 to just 44.5% in 2024— a staggering 20% decline.
This represents a steady exodus from public education, with enrollment dropping from 48% in 2018.
More troubling still are the learning outcomes. While reading abilities showed modest improvement, mathematical skills have nosedived. Among Class III students, the percentage capable of performing subtraction dropped from 32.7% to 26.9%.
For Class V students, division skills collapsed from 20.2% to a mere 12.4%—nearly halving in just two years.
Yet, the govt's most headline-grabbing move has been minister V Sivankutty's announcement to eliminate the concept of backbenchers from Kerala's classrooms.
'This notion can negatively impact a student's confidence and learning,' Sivankutty said. 'No child should fall behind in education or life.'
The inspiration came from an unlikely source: 'Sthanarthi Sreekuttan', a Malayalam film about a backbencher who challenges classroom hierarchies by proposing semicircular seating arrangements.
Some schools in Kerala and Tamil Nadu have already begun experimenting with the model, prompting the govt to consider statewide implementation.
Sivankutty announced that a committee of experts would identify the best seating model for Kerala's education system, drawing from international examples of countries that have abandoned traditional row-based classroom arrangements.
But educationists are skeptical.
RVG Menon, a veteran educationalist, welcomes the intent but questions its feasibility. Instead, he urges the govt to prioritize crumbling infrastructure: 'If snakes are entering classrooms or roofs are caving in, shouldn't that come first?' Menon also points to LDF's own backtracking on critical-thinking reforms in textbooks after political pushback, highlighting a pattern of half-measures.
Former education minister CP John called the reforms a farce designed to distract from systemic failures.
'Many school buildings are in such a poor condition. In this situation, the govt is attempting to introduce popular social media trends into the education system, seemingly to distract the public from the grim state of general education in the state.' He dismissed the proposed monsoon vacation shift and lunch menu changes as gimmicks, noting that in many schools, mid-day meal schemes are supported by local self-govts, but the plan funds allocated to these bodies were cut by 30%, leaving local bodies struggling to feed students.
'These are populist moves, not substantive solutions,' he said.
'I support whichever method is truly best,' said director Vinesh Vishwanath whose work inspired the reform. 'If our film somehow encourages schools to adopt the U-shape seating arrangement, we would be glad—but we would be even happier to see changes that genuinely address and resolve students' challenges, rather than simply being labeled as changes caused by our movie,' he said.
'I believe any discussion about this, including criticism, is healthy. While debates about the seating arrangement continue, there is broad agreement that breaking down the old frontbencher and backbencher labels is a positive step — and that's a message our movie also conveys,' he added.
Even supporters of classroom reform acknowledge significant practical hurdles. 'With 36 students crammed into upper primary classrooms and up to 60 in higher secondary classes, implementing U-shaped or semicircular arrangements becomes nearly impossible.
However, schools could ensure rotation,' said PK Aravindan, secretary, Kerala Pradesh School Teachers Association.
Professor Amruth G Kumar from Central University of Kerala pointed out that row-based seating emerged as enrollment surged.
'When the system was introduced, it wasn't meant to be oppressive. There were adequate gaps between benches, allowing teachers to interact and move. The problem arose when teaching became more static, with educators confined to blackboards and smart screens at the front,' he said.
As debates continue over the seating arrangement, the call for substance over symbolism grows louder. Whether Kerala's reforms will prove transformative or merely cosmetic may ultimately depend on the govt's willingness to tackle the harder, less photogenic work of rebuilding its educational foundation from the ground up.
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