Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

CHAPTER 6
RECKONING PROMISE: KERALA’S EDUCATIONAL CAPABILITY
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huge capitation fees and very high tuition fees drew
increasing numbers of takers from Kerala. Soon,
there was a strong plea for the sanction of capitation
fee colleges in Kerala. The Left ideology generated a
strong aversion to commercialisation of education in
Kerala, which, however, mellowed over time. This was
even as the Government was unable to expand the
public/aided sector in keeping with the growing demand
for engineering seats.
4.2.2 Controlled Expansion
The Government started a few engineering colleges in
the public domain in the latter half of the 1980s. One of
this was started in 1989 under a Government-sponsored
autonomous body, viz., the Institute for Human Resources
Development in Electronics (IHRDE). This college
charged a higher tuition fee than what was applicable
to the Government / aided colleges. The success of this
institution emboldened the setting up of some more fullfledged
self-financing colleges by Government-sponsored
autonomous bodies; along with which one self-financing
engineering college was allowed to be set up by the
Muslim Educational Society, as a minority educational
institution. During the same year, some self-financing
courses were also started in a university. Thus, the total
number of technical education institutions in Kerala
rose dramatically, with an intake of over 4,000 students
and the self-financing mode appeared to have been
accepted. A Supreme Court judgement, regarding the
conduct of self-financing colleges was a landmark event
in the history of professional education in the country.
Capitation fees, as well as deposits, were abolished.
A differential fee system (free seats and payment seats)
was introduced in unaided colleges: 50 per cent free seats
and 50 per cent payment seats. The ‘free’ seat holders
(actually a misnomer) had to pay the same fees as that
prevailing in Government colleges, while the ‘payment’
seat holders had to pay sufficiently high fees so as to
cover the rest of the recurring costs. Thus, the principle
of self-financing, that educational institutions can be
run solely by the fees and other charges collected from
students, was granted legitimacy by the Supreme Court.
The provision of free seats, while apparently addressing
the concern for equity was not always so; rather those
with higher paying capacity were to pay the expense of
one meritorious student who need not always be poor
(George, 1995). Admission to all professional colleges
was to be conducted by an authorised State agency, on the
basis of the rankings in a common entrance examination
(CEE) to be conducted by the Government.
The Government decided to entrust the task of managing
self-financing professional colleges to public agencies, as
far as possible. The State ministry of co-operation started a
new agency for the sole purpose of operating self-financing
professional colleges called Co-operative Academy of
Professional Education or CAPE, who were allotted a few
engineering colleges. Finally, the Government itself came
forward to start some more engineering colleges, belying the
earlier argument that the State had no resources for starting
new colleges. Thus, Kerala entered the new millennium with
29 institutions under different sectors with an enrolment
capacity of nearly 8,000.
4.2.3 The Explosion
The Government of Kerala’s policy decision in 2000 to
grant ‘no objection certificates’ to any private agency that
approached it for permission to start an unaided professional
college evoked a huge response. As the All India Council of
Technical Education (AICTE) was to take responsibility for
approving the infrastructural facilities and the universities
were to take care of the academic requirements, the
Government, it was projected, had no role to play, except
to facilitate private investment in professional education.
Thus, in 2004, Kerala had 88 institutions imparting
technical education at the degree level, including 48 in the
private unaided sector, with a total enrolment at 20,591.
New branches were added. As much as 38 per cent of the
seats were in computer science or information technology;
25 per cent were in electronics and related branches. The
traditional branches, civil, mechanical and electrical (now
converted into electrical and electronics) accounted for
only 27 per cent of the seats. The remaining seats were
in areas like biotechnology, biomedical engineering,