Kerala hikes number of Plus one seats by 20 per cent across seven districts from next academic year

The Kerala government has decided to increase the number of Plus one seats in the state by 20 per cent from the coming academic year. The new seats will be added in seven districts -  Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. This was announced by the state's Minister of General Education V Sivankutty.

The seat shortage in Plus one (Class XI of the Kerala Board) has been an ongoing issue and a number of teachers have been speaking up against this for years now. Previously, the government had hiked it by 20 per cent twice in 2019. But that did not solve the issue.

However, after a record number of students cleared the state's Class X board examination this year, there have been speculations about the state hiking the number of seats. For the first time in the state's history, 99.5 per cent of the students (4.91 lakh) passed the examination this year. At the same time, according to government data, the state only had 3.62 lakh seats across all its 14 districts.  This amounted to a shortage of around 1.3 lakh seats.

Along with announcing the increase in seats, the minister also convened a meeting to prepare the teachers and officials for the upcoming Class XI examination. "The Department of Education is fully prepared for the upcoming Class XI examinations. A meeting of officials was convened to assess the state-wide preparations," he tweeted.