Along with infrastructure development, the Kerala government is paying attention to academic improvement too so that students from the State can compete anywhere in the world, Minister for Finance K.N. Balagopal has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the State-level distribution of school textbooks at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Karamana, here on Thursday.
The Minister said the government was making efforts to transform Kerala into a model. It was trying to create employment opportunities for the people in the State itself. Skill development centres would be set up to provide training to children and enhance their abilities.
As part of this, a skill development centre would be set up at a cost of ₹5 crore at the Karamana government school in the memory of the late physicist Thanu Padmanabhan who was an alumnus of the school. A research institute that was coming up in the name of Thanu Padmanabhan at the University of Kerala would also benefit the youth, Mr. Balagopal said.
It was a matter of pride that the government had been able to print and distribute textbooks so as to reach students before schools reopened in June, he said.
Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty who presided over the function said all arrangements had been made for the distribution of textbooks before the start of the new academic year. As many as 2.84 crore textbooks across 288 titles had reached district hubs. These included minor subjects and activity books. From the hubs, the textbooks would reach school societies after sorting and packing was completed by Kudumbashree workers.
In order to address complaints related to the distribution, department officials had been deployed, and war rooms were functioning in the districts, the Minister added.
