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Time of India
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Kerala govt finalises new school academic calendar; working hours extended by 30 minutes
T'puram: Following pressure from the Kerala high court, the govt on Saturday finalised a new school academic calendar. Accordingly, the working hours of govt and aided schools in the state will be extended by 30 minutes, except on Fridays. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The office of the general education minister V Sivankutty stated that the daily additional hours would be equally split into two. The morning session will start 15 minutes earlier than the previous schedule, and the afternoon session will conclude 15 minutes after the schedule. Two Saturdays in an academic year will be working days for upper primary (UP) classes while there will be regular classes on six selected Saturdays for high school classes. However, there will be no classes on Saturdays for lower primary (LP) classes. The high court had recently criticised the state govt for not finalising the school academic calendar on time and asked it to finalise the calendar at the earliest to avoid the general education principal secretary being summoned to the court. Following the court's strong observations, minister Sivankutty revealed the govt's plans at a hastily called Quality Assurance Programme (QAP) meeting on Friday. However, only pro-CPM and CPI teachers' organisation representatives attended that meeting, as invitations were sent to them at the last minute. The new academic calendar has been finalised as per the recommendations of a committee appointed by the govt for this purpose. According to the new academic calendar, there will be 198 teaching days and 800 study hours in LP schools. With the inclusion of two Saturdays, the teaching days in the UP section will be 200, and the learning hours will be 1,000. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now As per Kerala Education rules, there should be a minimum of 1,100 learning hours in high schools. With the new arrangements, there will be 204 working days for the high school section. The govt earlier tried to overcome the minimum working days issue by declaring 25 Saturdays as working days. However, the order was challenged by stakeholders, and the high court struck down the govt's decision to declare Saturdays as working days in the 2024-25 academic year. The HC then urged the govt to ensure the minimum working days and teaching hours in schools after taking all stakeholders into confidence.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Governor cancels Kerala University syndicate's decision to promote pro-CPM functionary
T'puram: Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has cancelled Kerala University syndicate's decision to promote pro-CPM teachers' union functionary S Naseeb as an associate professor, allegedly violating university and UGC norms. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The syndicate's decision to consider the contract appointment period of the candidate in Sanskrit University for the promotion had sparked controversy earlier. A special meeting of the university syndicate on May 5, convened to discuss the governor's show-cause notice regarding the appointment, decided to ignore the notice and stick to the decision to promote the candidate. However, the university vice-chancellor (VC) Mohanan Kunnummal and opposition members in the syndicate opposed the move. Kunnummal pointed out that accepting the contract appointment period as teaching experience for promotion, contrary to UGC regulations, would necessitate a retrospective review of many current teachers' promotions. Only previous teaching experience with a salary equivalent to the assistant professor position should be considered for promotion, according to the regulations, the VC pointed out. Naseeb's temporary appointment at the Sanskrit University was at a salary lower than that of an assistant professor. Meanwhile, Naseeb approached the high court questioning the VC's stance of not implementing the syndicate's decision, but the court directed the governor to make a decision. Save University Campaign Committee alleged that the decision to lower the qualifications for the post of pro vice-chancellor (PVC) from professor to associate professor in the recently passed university amendment bill was to appoint Naseeb as PVC. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Hence CPM members in the syndicate took a stand to bypass UGC regulations for promotion, the committee said. It also submitted a petition to the governor and VC requesting the prevention of Naseeb's unauthorised promotion. Meanwhile, the state govt submitted a list of candidates to Raj Bhavan to be considered for appointment as interim VCs of Digital and Technological universities. The high court recently ruled that the appointment of interim VCs should be made from the list of candidates prepared by the state govt. Former governor Arif Mohammed Khan appointed Ciza Thomas and K Sivaprasad as the interim VCs of Digital and Technological universities respectively against the state govt's preference.
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
KU syndicate rejects chancellor's notice on promotion row
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala University syndicate on Monday rejected the show-cause notice issued by chancellor Rajendra Arlekar over the syndicate's decision, allegedly flouting norms, to promote a pro-CPM teachers' union leader to associate professor. The university syndicate, controlled by CPM nominees, refused to review the earlier decision on the promotion. The syndicate's decision to promote teachers' union functionary S Naseeb, considering the contract appointment period as regular experience, sparked a row. The syndicate decided to count the period during which the candidate worked on a contract basis at Sanskrit University. University vice-chancellor Mohanan Kunnummal, along with Congress and BJP nominees in the syndicate, objected to the decision, stating that it was against UGC rules and could trigger similar requests from several teachers in service. The VC had earlier reported the syndicate decision to governor Arlekar. The syndicate rejected chancellor's directive to review the promotion decision and held the view that the VC had no authority to keep the decision in abeyance or report the same to the chancellor. The syndicate decided to stick to the promotion decision, recording the dissent by VC and opposition members. The arguments among the syndicate members created chaotic scenes, and VC prevented CPM members from passing a resolution against him. Syndicate's decision prompted Save University Campaign Committee to oppose it. CPM was allegedly trying to get Naseeb appointed as pro-vice chancellor. Govt recently passed a bill lowering the qualification for pro-vice-chancellor post from professor to associate professor.
