People's Democracy

KERALA PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES ACT, 2006

Promoting Equity And Excellence In Professional Education

M A Baby

THE Kerala Professional College Bill, 2006 unanimously adopted by the state legislature on June 30, will go down in history as the first legislative measure of the new Left Democratic Front government to honour its promises to the people. The build up to the passage of the Bill  witnessed a revival of the spirit of the first EMS government of 1957-59. Reports comparing the Bill to the Education Bill of Professor Mundassery appeared again and again in the press. The pros and cons of the Bill were widely debated. As the d-day came closer, doubts were expressed about the smooth passage of the Bill in the Assembly and there was even a whispering campaign that the governor would refuse to give assent to the bill. The unsavoury haste shown by the National Minority commission in granting minority status to some unaided professional colleges created the impression of a constitutional crisis in the offing. But it was a different story on the day of reckoning. Though the Opposition kept up the pretence of a protest and insisted on division in respect of some provisions in the bill, the Bill was passed unanimously at the end of the day. The Honourable governor, who was away from the Capital, was gracious enough to stamp his assent from his camp office at Kochi so that the there would be no delay in holding admissions to professional courses on the basis of the provisions of the new Act. Clearly, much water has flown down the Periyar since 1957. The days of farcical liberation struggle are over.

In framing the law, the government had to act within the framework of the directives laid down by the Supreme Court. In the absence of a comprehensive Central legislation to regulate un-aided professional educational institutions, the State had to undertake the responsibility. The expectations of the people were so  high that nothing less than a perfect solution to the vexing issues in unaided professional sector would satisfy them. The government was compelled to perform a delicate balancing act, which would give maximum satisfaction to the people without overstepping the limited powers at its disposal. The only option before the government was to make maximum use of the positive provisions in various Supreme Court judgement and 93rd Constitutional amendment to arrive at a compromise formula for promoting equity and excellence in unaided professional education.

The Act has incorporated provisions for fulfilling almost all the promises made in the LDF manifesto in respect of unaided professional education. The following promises had been made:

1.        Ensure social justice in admission and fees.

2.        Ensure excellence in education through merit-based admission.

3.        Prevent capitation fee and commercialisation of education.

4.        Set up a Higher Education Fund for giving assistance to the needy students

5.        Scientific revision of the norms for selection to professional courses.

The last item on the list has not been taken up in the present legislation. However, the government has decided to constitute an expert committee to go into the question in all its details. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, a new legislation will be attempted next year. The present legislation has confined itself to addressing the concerns in the first four items.

Maximum reliance has been placed on the authority given by the Supreme Court to the states for regulating admission in order to ensure that it is conducted in a fair, transparent and non-exploitative manner. Accordingly, the Bill provides for admission to be held under single window system to 85 per cent of the total seats. The state commissioner for Entrance Examinations will hold a Common Entrance Examination to prepare a common rank list. Applicants to various categories will be selected and admitted by the Commissioner on the basis of interse merit from the rank list. Fees for all categories of seats would be fixed by a quasi-judicial authority headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court/High Court. There is provision for penalty up to a maximum of rupees three lakhs and imprisonment up to three years for those who try to circumvent the provisions of the Act. Punishment could be imposed on both the giver and taker of capitation fee. Similarly those who issue and make use of false income certificates to avail free ship under the scheme are liable to be punished.

The promise of equitable opportunities for education to socially, educationally and economically backward sections of the people has been fulfilled to a large extent. 35 per cent of the seats have been set apart as mandatory reservation giving full effect to the 93^rd constitutional amendment. Provision has been made for reservation by consensus to weaker sections of the population not covered under the mandatory reservation, 3 per cent of the seats have been reserved for the physically challenged and 12 per cent for others not covered by mandatory reservation under this category. Not less than 50 per cent of the students admitted will get free ship on merit cum means basis. However all SC/ST students will enjoy this benefit without reference to their family income that does not exceed rupees two and a half lakhs. The amount required for this massive subsidy scheme will be raised from the excess generated under 15 per cent NRI quota, charity on the part of managements and contributions from the government for providing free ship to SC/ST students. The government would also set up a Higher Education Scholarship Fund from which needy students could avail loan scholarship at nominal rates of interest. The fund would be raised through government contribution, voluntary contributions form philanthropists and fines levied under the Act.

While the Bill addresses the genuine concerns of the minorities, adequate care has been taken to prevent the misuse of the rights. The peculiar demographic and socio- economic complexion prevailing in the state makes Kerala very unique in the context of minority rights. The Supreme Court has defined minority rights as federal, equitable and secular rights. Accordingly minorities have to be identified state wise. While there is every justification for positive discrimination to translate the principle of equality into a social reality, the State has to ensure that such positive discrimination does not in effect cause reverse discrimination. The bill has identified three norms of demographic equivalence between minority and non-minority communities on the basis of which minority status could be conferred on unaided professional educational institutions. It is for the first time in the country that such concrete norms for the identification of minority educational institutions have been framed. In the absence of clear-cut norms laid down by the Centre, the state has every right to fix such norms. It is expected that the state norms arrived at on the basis of the broad principles laid down by the Supreme Court would stand judicial scrutiny and could become a model for other states to follow.

The scheme laid down in the bill for regulating admission and fee in unaided professional educational institutions in the state is qualitatively different from the scheme laid down in the 2004 Act on the same subject in the state. The 2004 Act only provided for a scheme for seat sharing between the state and managements in a 50:50 ratio. The managements had complete freedom both in the selection of students and in the fixation of fee in seats allotted to them. More over the beneficiaries of fee concession were mostly students from the upper strata of society as free ship was decided on the basis of merit without any reference to means. The UDF government had virtually reinstated an inequitable scheme, which was held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Apart from devising a new scheme whereby the rich could provide for the poor, the new bill has also attempted to provide adequate room for promotion of talent not only in academics, but even in the fields of sports and culture. Two percent of the total seats would be reserved for students who have excelled in the fields of sports and culture.

The Kerala Professional Colleges Bill, 2006 is in short an honest attempt to bring about a happy blending of tradition and modernity. While every attempt has been made to preserve and strengthen the long tradition of providing equitable opportunities for learning to all sections of society, the concerns of an emerging competitive knowledge economy have also been addressed. Hence the scheme of the bill and the principles that guided the formulation of the scheme deserves to be discussed at the national level.