Education Minister P J Joseph has ruled out sanctioning any fresh schools yielding to pressure from any quarters. The total number of schools where plus-two courses have been granted this year has gone up to 360, among them 169 in the private sector.

"This is the last list. With this, the total number of plus-two schools has gone up to 888. The list of additional batches for existing plus-two schools will be announced on Monday," he told reporters here.

With the announcement of new batches, the total number of plus-two seats will be 145,000 as against the 142,000 pre-degree seats separated from the colleges. The lists were finalised by a sub-committee of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).

The first list, announced early this month, contained 287 schools and 11 schools were upgraded subsequently. The latest was to compensate the de-linked pre-degree batches in the respective localities following widespread protests, the minister said.

Brushing aside the criticisms, the minister said: "Availability of infrastructure was the main criterion for the allocations. The criticisms are natural as 988 private aided schools applied for the Plus-Two courses and satisfying all was not possible."

The plus-two classes will begin on July 24. The last date for receiving applications is July 7.

Other Links
Plus-Two issue rocks Kerala Assembly again
Bias seen over plus-two courses in Kerala
Kerala: 11 more schools in plus-two list