Education Minister of Kerala 2023

Vasudevan Sivankutty is the current Education Minister of Kerala. He entered politics through the Students' Federation of India (SFI). In the recently concluded Kerala Assembly Elections, he defeated BJP's Kummanam Rajasekharan and K. Muraleedharan to become the MLA of Nemom again (2021–Present). Sivankutty started his political career from the students' Federation of India (SFI) and has held various positions as its District President, State President, District Secretary, State Secretary, and All India Joint Secretary. He later joined the Centre of Indian Trade Union (CITU) and currently is functioning as its State Secretary and District President.

Who is Vasudevan Sivankutty?

Vasudevan Sivankutty, an Indian Politician representing the Nemom Constituency in the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly, took office as the Minister for Education and Labour on May 20, 2021.

From 2011 to 2016, he was the President of Ulloor Panchayat, the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, Joint Secretary of the All India Mayors' Council, MLA Thiruvananthapuram East, and later Nemom.

The other departments under him right now are Literacy Movement, Employment and Training, Skills, Rehabilitation, Factories and Boilers, Insurance Medical Service, Industrial Tribunals, and Labour Courts. He is currently a Minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF cabinet, handling portfolios Public Education and Labour.

Responsibilities of Education Minister of Kerala

Kerala is one of the top states that offer quality education. If people look into the past, the literacy rate of India has gone up drastically after the year 1991. Most recently, he had taken the initiative in his constituency of Thrissur Town. He took over 79 schools and more than 150 classrooms and changed them into hi-tech study centres where the student will have access to high-speed wifi and live projectors. It helps in an increase in the exposure of the students towards this world.

Some of the points taken by the education department of Kerala under the supervision of the education minister are as follows.

• The education department has the responsibility to classify the schools based on various factors.
• The education department of Kerala takes care of the private schools also by monitoring their fee structures.
• The education department will always be in the plans for establishing new schools in the areas where there is a requirement.
• The maintenance of the already existing schools also is a responsibility of the education department.
• All the state's private schools must be recognized by the state to be eligible for offering admissions to the students.
• The Kerala education board lists the rules and regulations regarding the admissions, transfer, and removal of the students. However, These rules may be changed from time to time.
• The education department is responsible for announcing the attendance details, holiday dates, and dates of the vacation at the beginning of every academic year.
• The education department also makes sudden inspections of the schools to promptly ensure that the rules and regulations are being followed.
• There will be some schools in every state that are in a position where they could not continue to offer education for people due to various reasons. The education department takes over all such schools and makes sure that the infrastructure is not wasted.
• There will be a requirement for non-teaching staff in every school. The education department has to recruit this non-teaching staff for all the government and the aided schools in Kerala.
• The education department will also do recruitment and provide salaries for all government and aided schools.

Current Education Plans in Kerala

Kerala launched an ongoing education campaign on Oct 26, 1998, spreading the slogan "Education for all, and education for all eternity" six years after incorporating the envy topic of full-time education.

• Currently, the KSLMA is fully funded by the government of Kerala to start learning, further education, and a long-term learning program designed and developed by the government. The District Literacy Department oversees activities at the district level.
• Further Education Institutions are operating under local Government Institutions spread across the country as a unit for delivering equipment services.
• Currently, the government-funded lifelong learning program focuses on the Equality Program at four levels; a typical ratio of 4, 7, 10, 11, and 12.
• According to the latest documents of the 12th Five Year Plan approved by the State Planning Board, Kerala Government, the state is estimated to have 18 lakh illiterate people and 12 lakh neo-illiterate. They found that the illiterate funds were urban slums, coastal areas, and traditional settlements that needed special attention.
• Efforts by the National Literacy Mission under the Saakshar Bharat Scheme to reduce illiteracy could be passed on to the nation, fishers, and other marginalized people in the Kerala community.
• Another group to focus on is 25-30 lakhs of people from different countries in northern India. In addition, there will be efforts to reverse the meaning of literacy beyond literacy to advance the provision of carefully planned skills, knowledge, and information to the needy.

Education Department of Kerala

The state of Kerala was one of the first states in the country to introduce an education ministry into the cabinet of ministers. The state realized how important education is in the future. They started a lot of schools in almost all parts of the state. Today, we all know that Kerala stands in the first position for the highest literacy rates in India. It is because the Kerala government gave a special cabinet to education in 1958.

During that time, most of the other states focused on developing large and medium-scale industries. Kerala took the most logical step, and they thought building big factories would go to waste if there were no skilled personnel in them to work. So, they focused on the education aspect first, ensuring that almost everyone in the state gets a formal education. Then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they focused on large and medium-scale industries.

The state had also achieved the objectives way before many of the states added the education department. Some of them are:

• The formation of the education department to the cabinet of ministers is known as The Kerala Education Act of 1958. This act made sure that education will be given the highest possible priority for future generations.
• Many of the other states in the country only focus on higher education. But, in Kerala, the education department looks after even the primary classes and the schools that offer primary education.
• The education act of Kerala is very dynamic. It is why it was still kept active in 2021 even after 60 years of its incubation.

Former Education Minister of Kerala

Professor Raveendranath is an Indian politician and Minister of General Education for Kerala in the Department of Pinarayi Vijayan. He is a Communist Party of India (Marxist) politician from Thrissur and a member of the Kerala Legislature from the Puthukkad Assembly since 2011. However, he is a retired professor of chemistry at St. Thomas College, Trississur.

He has also served as a resource person for the Total Literacy Program, the State Planning Board coordinator, the regional coordinator for the Human Settlements Program. Other projects include the 'Nivedya Kadali' donation of bananas at the Guruvayur temple, the supply of live vegetables to Oushadhi, a provincial government agency producing Ayurvedic medicine, and the Natural Milk Scheme for the city of Thrissur. He has also received up to 150 classes in 79 schools that have been converted into high-tech classes.