The LDF has demolished the education system of our state with its irrational and impractical policies and spoiled the state’s image as an educationally advanced part of the country. Until LDF assumed power, educational policy-makers and developmental economists looked upon Kerala as the ideal model which achieved a high level of social and economic development through education. A higher literacy rate, school enrolment and retention rate, higher education enrolment rate etc had put Kerala on the education map a long while ago.

Recent statistics show that a number of states in the country are ahead of Kerala in providing access to higher education. The State has lost its efficiency and is unable to provide quality professional education in critical areas like Medicine, Engineering and Management etc. Higher education in Kerala has not been as effective as in the past in producing graduates and professionals who maintain national/international standards. We also find a steady decline in the number of higher secondary students from the State stream succeeding in entrance exams conducted by all India institutions like AIMS, IIT’s, IISC etc as against students from the national streams like the CBSE and the ICSE.

Education sector had always been a top priority for the UDF. Last year we appointed a committee comprising of ace academics and educational experts from all over Kerala for formulating a modern education paradigm for implementing in the state when UDF comes to power. UDF plans to bring dramatic changes to save the education system that has been disintegrated and deformed due to the miscalculated education policies of the LDF.

When top institutions in other parts of India like the Presidency College, Madras, Christian College, Madras, Elpinstone College, Bombay, St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, Presidency College, Calcutta have grown into international education points, University College, Trivandrum has been sliding down in quality of education with only memories of a colourful yesterday remaining, when students with world-class standard passed out from here.

The LDF has not capitalised on the true academic potential of the State – the availability of students with superior cognitive calibre, and the availability of substantial number of qualified and committed teachers working in Kerala Colleges and Universities.

A large-scale system correction is quintessential to sync our system with the academic demands of the 21^st century. Beginning with the school systems and extending to different sectors of higher education systems, a drastic change in the current system has to be coupled with sensible policies to ensure Kerala as a state achieves the progress it is capable of.