Thiruvananthapuram: The integration of high schools and higher secondary schools into a single system initiated by the general education department is in the final stages.
The directorate of higher secondary education will cease to exist with all schools in the state coming directly under the administration of the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI).
The entire school education sector will come under a single authority in place of the present higher secondary, vocational higher secondary and high school divisions. The multiple heads in one school – a headmaster or headmistress and a principal for the higher secondary school-- will go.
The state government had appointed a committee headed by Mr M.A. Khader, former director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), to look into the merger.
The decision has been opposed by higher secondary teachers because they would be brought on par with the high school teachers.
The government said that central assistance will be available only if high school and higher secondary sections are unified under one authority.
Higher secondary school teachers under the banner of the Federation of Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association had boycotted the valuation of Plus-Two answer papers in protest against the government’s move in the last academic year.
