Thiruvananthapuram: The minimum age for a student to join Class 1 in government schools in the State will continue to be 5 years. This runs contrary to the provisions contained in the Central education policy which stipulates that a student should have reached the age of six years for joining Class 1.
The revised draft of the school manual, the official document based on which schools in the State function, was released by Education Minister V Sivankutty the other day. He also released the academic master plan which details the coordinated curriculum work to be implemented in schools.
The school manual insists that no fee should be charged by the schools from students from Class 1 to Class 8.
The District Education Officers (DEOs) and the Assistant Education Officers (AEOs) have been given powers to permit three months of age relaxation for admission to Class 9 and six months of age relaxation for admission to Class 10.
The draft school manual have also listed the structure, powers, functions and fund utilization aspects of the school management committee, the School PTA, Class PTA and Alumni Association.
The School Management Committee should ensure that teachers do not enter into private tuition or any other vocation. About 50 percent of the representatives of teachers and parents in the PTA committees must be women.
The draft of the academic master plan also contains the provision to set up a monitoring committee to supervise the curriculum activities at the school. Apart from the nominees of the teachers and parents, the monitoring committee should have representatives from among local body members, academic experts and alumni members.
The public, various organisations and educational experts have time till May 20 to raise their suggestions regarding the draft school manual.
According to the minister, the final manual will be prepared on the basis of the suggestions received for the draft manual.