KOZHIKODE: The LDF government will protect the status of the aided upper primary school at Malaparamba which is at the centre of a controversy over the High Court order to close it down. This was stated by Education Minister C. Raveendranath in Thiruvananthapuram even as the parents and school protection committee blocked the Kozhikode city AEO K. S. Kusumam and prevented her from serving the closure notice on the principal on Thursday.
She arrived around 11 a.m. to close the school as directed by the High Court, but since she could not carry out her duty, the police filed a case against the committee members for obstructing a public servant from discharging her duty. The police did not use force to disperse the crowd and the AEO left the scene without creating any untoward scene.
Ms Kusumam will present a copy of the FIR and the report, including photographs and videos, to the High Court, which on Tuesday had directed the state government to implement its order before May 27 as per a case filed by the manager of the school based on the Kerala Education Act clause 72.
Mr A. Pradeepkumar, MLA, who visited the school, said that the decision of the High Court was taken in haste before the new government assumed office. According to the HC order, the manager of the school has all the right to close down the school as per the Kerala Education Act, which could not be interfered with. The clause permits the manager of an uneconomic aided management school to close it down by giving a one-year prior notice to the education department.
