THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Marking another ambitious leap in the state’s education sector, Kerala is all set to provide life insurance coverage to close to 35 lakh school students.

An in-principle decision has been made to provide insurance coverage to students from Classes 1 to 10, studying in government, aided, and unaided state syllabus schools.

The state government will remit the insurance premium for all students falling under the scheme set to be rolled out from the next academic year. The move comes in the wake of repeated accidents in schools, with the latest being the electrocution of a 13-year-old boy, Mithun, at the Thevalakkara Boys High School in Kollam.

Last week, Finance Minister K N Balagopal and General Education Minister V Sivankutty met to discuss the matter in detail.

“We held preliminary discussions in this regard. The scheme will be examined by the education department. I hope we can present this in the upcoming budget session,” Balagopal told TNIE.

On the minister’s instruction, the insurance department carried out a preliminary analysis of the project potential.

A datasheet on how this can be implemented -- including the options and premiums for accidental death and in-patient and out-patient consultations following an accident -- had already been provided to the education minister’s office, said insurance department joint director Bushra S Deepa.

Health issues, other than those related to accidents, will not fall under the purview of the scheme, as per the current plan.

“Inclusion of students studying in central syllabus schools, hasn’t been confirmed as of now,” Bushra said. She added that if funds are ready, there are insurance companies in the public sector with whom the department has co-insurance connections to facilitate the process.

The government will ensure the scheme remains in the public sector, said a senior official with the education department.

The story is reported by Aswin Asok Kumar for The New Indian Express