Kids Have No Religion! 1.24 Lakh Students Leave Religion And Caste Column Empty While Seeking Admission In Kerala Schools
Kerala Education Minister C Raveendranath told the state Assembly on Wednesday that the school records of as many as 1,23,630 students in the state have empty religion and caste columns.
Cochin, March 28: Kerala strengthens its progressive thought in India as scores of kids studying in Kerala’s private and government schools say that they don’t belong to a particular caste or religion. However, this year, it has been officially declared that a record 1.24 lakh student in the southern state left their caste and religion columns blank while taking admission in schools.
According to a recent report by Indian Express, Education Minister C Raveendranath told the state Assembly that the school records of as many as 1,23,630 students in the state have empty religion and caste columns. Raveendranath was responding to a question raised by CPM MLA from Vamanapuram, DK Murali about the number of students who preferred not to fill the ‘caste’ and ‘religion’ columns at the time of admission during the ongoing session of the state Assembly.
Adding further C Raveendranath informed that 1,23,630 students between classes 1 and 10 stated they had no caste or religion while the number of such students in classes 11 and 12 was 278 and 239, respectively.
The news has been widely discussed in the state with many people hailing this as an achievement befitting a progressive state while scores feel that this is a gimmick to blind to the reality of the state. However, reports state that under the Vocational Higher Secondary category schools, none of the students have opted to seek admission without caste or religion.
It must be noted that the figures stated in the state Assembly in Kerala are from the 2017-18 academic year. The figures have been collated from over 9,000 schools in the state. To recall, social reformer—Sri Narayana Guru rejected the pernicious practice of casteism, and along the way promoted important values of spiritual freedom and social equality in the late 19th century.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 28, 2018 11:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).