Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

CHAPTER 10
BY WAY OF CONCLUSION: SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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especially in construction of additional buildings, creating
better amenities and providing transport facilities. But the
problem of quality demands focused policy attention. The
low standards in such subjects as Mathematics and English
at the school level should be viewed as a matter of serious
concern as indicated by the percentage of pass. Both are
necessary skills in the changing labour market scenario.
At the same time, a greater degree of vocationalisation is
called for at the high school level since not all students
pursue university level education. They need employable
skills, which could be acquired at the secondary and
higher secondary levels. An option to pursue either a
general education or vocational education from the eighth
year of school should be considered while addressing the
quality of education. Similarly, there is need to expand
the opportunities to pursue vocational education at the
higher secondary (plus two) and diploma levels in 'newer'
skills given the changing nature of the job market.
Reform of the curriculum is another area for qualitative
improvement of the educational capabilities. This is
particularly relevant at the level of college and university
education. Barring minor exceptions, higher education
has got trapped in a low level equilibrium, characterised
by mediocre performances producing a disproportionate
share of people with general degrees in arts, sciences and
humanities without any specialised skills or knowledge
commanding a premium in the job market. At the same
time there is a fierce desire for entry into professional
education stream, particularly in engineering and
medicine for which the number of seats has enormously
been increased. The inability of the teaching community
to respond positively to the challenge of improving quality
and the inability of the system to initiate bold steps are
forcing a number of good students to migrate to other
parts of the country or the world.
development is provided. Such a programme will benefit
the educated but unemployed/unemployable youth
especially the women.
2.9 Health Care System: Emerging Challenges
One of the findings of this Report with regard to health
is Kerala’s continuing remarkable achievement. But there
are several new challenges that call for urgent attention.
Kerala’s incidence of morbidity continues to be high in
the all-India context. While part of this could be attributed
to increases in life expectancy, studies have revealed that
the incidence is higher among the poorer sections. Better
nutrition, environmental sanitation and preventive health
care programmes have to be intensified. Given the fact
that these are not profit-making activities, this calls for
enhanced public investment and greater effectiveness
in implementation of programmes. More than two-thirds
of curative aspects of health care are now in the private
sector without government support. But the private sector
of recent vintage, shows a higher propensity to create
‘super-speciality’ services that cater to the richer sections
of the population. There is a strong case for a regulatory
mechanism for the private health sector appropriately
packaged with policy regulations, incentives and
disincentives. The elements of such a package will have
to take into account the needs of the poorer sections,
disposal of hospital wastes, and some role in preventive
health care services. Some form of taxation of private
health care services should also be thought of with a
view to creating a fund for preventive health care services
that could supplement the existing programmes. Other
emerging areas of concern in which public initiative is
necessary are the high levels of mental distress, higher
incidence of life style diseases and alcoholism.
Any reform of the education system with a view to
improving quality will have its impact only with a time
lag. But there is already a stock of educated labour force
whose problems of unemployment and underemployment
is partly related to their absence of marketable skills and/or
knowledge. Skill development programmes through short
duration courses is one way to address this problem. And
there is excess capacity in the system in terms of unutilised
time of schools, colleges and training institutions as well
as the availability of teachers (especially in a State where
majority of teachers and professionals have to retire at the
age of 55 with an average life expectancy of well beyond
70 to 75 years!). This calls for an imaginative programme
that could be self-financing if quality training in skill