1 Inclusive Features

More than 94% of the rural population is served by primary school/section within a distance of 1 km while 98% of population has got one school within a distance of 2 km. More than 96% of the population is served by an upper primary school/section within a distance of 3 km. Nearly 98% of the rural population has the facility for secondary education within 8 km.1 Facilities for higher and technical education too are available to rural students at a reasonable distance. Besides, the widespread availability of public transport system and the highly subsidised transport fares2 have facilitated an easy access for rural students to higher educational institutions in towns and cities.

Another feature of Kerala’s educational system is that it developed mainly through institutions that are owned or aided by the government. There are no fees at any level in schools. The fees are very low in the higher education and technical education i nstitutions that are owned or aided by the government. The r atio of recovery of government’s revenue expenditure was only 2.6% in 2006-07.

Kerala’s education system has been able to achieve gender e quity in enrolment to a large extent. Nearly half of the students in lower primary classes are girls. There is not much gender disparity in the pre-primary school enrolment either (CSES 2002). The proportion of girls is higher in higher classes in schools. This proportion is much higher in arts and science colleges both at the graduate and postgraduate levels. The representation of girls in professional courses is, however, comparatively low. Among the teachers in schools, the presence of female teachers is around 70% in Kerala as against 50% in the country. In arts and science colleges, female teachers constitute around 50%.

The literacy rates for scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) population, though lower than those of the general population in the state, are higher than the literacy rates for the general population in India. SC students constitute 10.7% and ST students 1.2% of the total enrolment in schools. Their share in enrolment is commensurate with their share in the schoolgoing age group population (10.4% for SCs and 1.2% for STs). The share of SC and ST students in enrolment

SPECIAL ARTICLE

in higher education also is commensurate with their share in the total population of the state, which is 9.8% and 1.1%, respectively.

2 Exclusionary Trends

Several micro-level studies indicate that the situation is not as rosy as suggested by the aggregate statistics described above. These studies revealed that the aggregate statistics camouflage some of the major differences in the educational achievements of people belonging to different socio-economic groups. Exclusionary trends have been getting stronger since 1990s. This is mainly because of four factors:

(1) increase in private costs to be incurred by students, (2) growth of student-financed institutions, (3) strengthening of non-financial entry barriers, and (4) inadequate attention to the problems of the disadvantaged groups.

and the caste groups which used to finance education partly out of schools. These schools are functioning as per the provisions of the their own resources are now choosing the easier option of student-Kerala Education Rules which allow private study up to standard IV. financing for promoting education. The universities and some of Another phenomenon in the education sector is the rapid inthe government agencies4 and cooperatives floated at the initiative crease in the number of non-formal educational institutions. of the government are now starting only student-funded colleges. These are not affiliated to any university or government. Most of Most of the job-oriented courses like nursing, medical, engineer-them offer job-oriented courses and are run purely on commering, management are now in the self-financing sector (Table 1). cial basis. There is no reliable estimate of the number of these i nstitutions or the students enrolled in them.

Table 1: Ownership of Educational Institutions in 1991 and 2007-08

However, there are reasons to believe that their

Type of Institution 1991 2007-08 Govt Aided Unaided Total % of Unaided Govt Aided Unaided Total % of Unaided number is not small. Regular in Total Regular in Total

LP schools UP schools	2,565 960	4,068 1,883	134 72	6,767 2,915	2.0 2.5	2,548 954	3,992 1,870	277 213	6,817 3,037	4.1 7.0	2.3 Non-Financial Entry Barriers
High schools	960	1,380	111	2,451	4.5	996	1,428	366	2,790	13.1	The CSES (1997) study quoted earlier brings to
Higher secondary schools	49	37	0	86	0.0	729	529	439	1,697	25.9	light the non-financial barriers to enter the pro-
VHSE schools	179	7	0	186	0.0	261	128	0	389	0.0	fessional courses. The study finds that the stu-
ITI/ITC	28	-	274	302	90.7	76	-	354	430	82.3	dents of government schools and rural schools
Arts and science colleges	40	132	0	172	0.0	39	150	153	342	44.7	found it difficult to get admission to these
PolytechnicsEngineering colleges Medical colleges Ayurveda colleges Dental colleges	24 5 5 3 2	6 3 0 2 0	0 0 0 1 0	30 8 5 6 2	0.0 0.0 0.0 16.7 0.0	43 11 5 3 3	6 3 0 2 0	9 72 8 8 6	58 86 13 13 9	15.5 83.7 61.5 61.5 66.7	courses. The students of Malayalam m edium schools have only a marginal representation. The first generation students, whose parental education is low are not finding it easy to get
Homoeo colleges	2	3	0	5	0.0	2	3	0	5	0.0	admission. So is the case with the children of
Nursing colleges	3	0	0	3	0.0	5	0	42	47	89.4	agriculturists and self-employed. There is also a
Pharmacy colleges	1	0	0	1	0.0	2	0	17	19	89.5	gender bias. The study points out the huge dis-

Source: Economic Review 1991 and 2007, Government of Kerala.

More than 80% of the engineering colleges, nursing colleges, nursing schools and pharmacy colleges are in the self-financing stream. More than three-fifths of the institutions offering medical courses in different streams such as allopathy, ayurveda and homoeo pathy are also self-financing in nature. Of the arts and science c olleges in the state, 45% are now in the self-financing stream.

The private aided colleges, which dominated the arts and science college sector contributing to more than three-fourths of the number of colleges in 1991, have now a share of only 44%. Their expansion is now mostly in the self-financing mode. In 2007-08, the self-financing arts and science colleges outnumbered the aided colleges. Their number stood at 153. They now constitute 45% of the total number of arts and science colleges in the state. Most of the newly started job-oriented courses are now conducted on self-financing basis, either in the newly started unaided institutions or in the existing aided colleges themselves. The share of government has shown a small improvement in the case of industrial training centres (ITCs). But the ITCs were largely in the p rivate sector even in 1991.

In Table 1, only unaided schools which are recognised by the state government have been counted. In addition to these schools, there are schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSC) and Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE). There are a large number of schools, which are not recognised by any central or state agency. Therefore, the share of unaided sector in the state’s school education system is much more than the figures reported in Table 1. Table 2 provides more details on the number of unaided schools in the state. It indicates that different types of unaided schools together form more than one-fourth of the total number of schools in the state. Schools which are not recognised by any central or state agency constituted 16.5% of the

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

october 10, 2009 vol xliv no 41

parities in the educational standards at the school level as a major factor contributing to the strengthening of the entry barriers.

The CSES (1997) study and Kumar (2004) identify entrance tests as another entry barrier. These studies find that vast majority of the students getting admission to the professional courses had their entrance coaching in the cities. The proximity to better coaching centres gives an advantage to urban students. Fees constitute only one of the components of the costs of entrance coaching. Students in rural areas have to incur considerably more expenses for transport or for living in lodges. These high costs strengthen the entry barriers against the rural and poor students. While entrance tests are praised for their value in providing a common yardstick for comparing students from diverse schools with different grading standards, no decision has been taken by the government to remove the existing biases in the entrance tests or to make them more effective in assessing the aptitudes of students and in measuring

Table 2: Schooling in Kerala Up To Class X in 2006-07

Type of School	No of Schools	Share in Total
		Number of Schools
Government or aided
State government schools	4,498	28.1
Private schools aided by the state government	7,290	45.5
Kendriya Vidyalaya	26	0.2
Navodaya Vidyalaya	14	0.1
Sub-total – government or aided	11,828	73.8
Private unaided schools
Recognised by the state government	856	5.3
Approved by CBSE	587	3.7
Approved by ICSE	100	0.6
Unrecognised unaided schools	2,646	16.5
Sub-total – private unaided	4,189	26.2
Total	16,017	100.0

Source: Government of Kerala (2008): Economic Review 2007 and Government of Kerala (2007): Report of the Survey on Unrecognised schools in Kerala.

SPECIAL ARTICLE

their abilities in completing the course successfully. Such an improvement is particularly relevant as the coaching for entrance tests is harming the state’s education system in other ways too.5

2.4 Inadequate Attention to Disadvantaged Groups

George (2001), surveying the below poverty line (BPL) families in one rural area and one urban periphery in the state, has found that the enrolment ratio of the poor is very low in the higher classes. The ratio is cent per cent at the primary level (age 6 to 11) and 66.7% at the middle school level (age 11 to 14). At the secondary level (age 14 to 18), the ratio falls drastically to 25%. The enrolment ratio among the poor at the higher education level (age 18 and above) is very poor at 1.9. The Human Development R eport for Kerala (2005) comes to the conclusion that the deprived groups (SC/ST and Other Backward Castes (OBC) groups) lag b ehind the others in the achievement of this basic functioning.

We have noticed earlier that the overall statistics indicate gender equity in education. However, the CSES study on Alternative Schools (2003) and the study by Tharakan et al (2004) on Kerala’s education system bring out several instances of gender stereotyping in the learning materials. Such gender stereotyping may lead to exclusion of women from the mainstream and make them lag behind their male counterparts in active social and political participation. This may be a reason for the inability of women in the state to convert their achievements in education into practical achievements in the real world.

We have noted earlier that the share of SC and ST communities in school enrolment is almost the same as their share in the population in the schoolgoing age group. A comparison of the caste composition of students in unaided schools and government/aided schools, however, provides indications of exclusion. The share of SC and ST in enrolment in unaided schools recognised by the state government in 2007-08 was just 3.3% and 0.4%, respectively. As against this, the share of these groups in the enrolment in government schools is much higher at 13.5% and 2.7%, respectively. In the aided schools, the shares of SC and ST in enrolment were 10.5% and 1.1%, respectively. It is also to be noted that SC and ST students lag behind in their performance in the secondary school leaving certificate (SSLC) examinations. The percentage of pass in SSLC examination of March 2007 was 65.7 for SC students and 60.7 for ST students, while the overall pass percentage was 82.2 (GoK 2008).

Studying a marine fishing village in Thiruvananthapuram district, George and Domi (2002) have found that the marine fishing community has been largely left out of the achievements of the Kerala’s educational development. Their study indicates high dropouts and low achievement levels among the children of m arine fish workers.

3 Economic Factors

The exclusionary trends got strengthened due to the failure of the state to improve the quality of schooling and increase the intake capacity of professional education institutions, when the demand for better quality schooling and professional education were growing. The failure of the government was taking place when the capacity of a large number of households to pay for education was increasing due to a number of reasons such as growth in per capita state domestic product (SDP), expansion of job markets both

58 within the country and abroad, inflow of remittances, decrease in the number of children, reduction in household size, etc.6

4 Social and Political Factors

The expansion of unaided/self-financing system can be traced partly to the emergence of a new middle class in the state. An i ndication of the emergence of this middle class can be seen from the large proportion of households owning luxury goods such as large houses, automobiles, jewellery, telephones, television sets, etc. This proportion is much higher in Kerala than in the country as a whole (NSSO 2007). This emerging middle class is both prepared

Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

for and is capable of buying its way in the educational sector. Many of the less educated but rich members of this class find education as a means for social mobility and respectability.

There is a growing tendency for the middle class to opt out of the government-owned and aided educational system avowedly because of its low quality, but also due to social reasons. This tendency to quit the government system of education by the vocal and influential middle class, in turn, has led to further deterioration of the system and the expansion of the unaided sector. A vicious circle thus seems to be closing in. Put it in other words, large sections of the people of Kerala are gradually losing their stakes in the government system whether it is of education or healthcare (George and Tharakan 2005). This, in turn, has led to their unwillingness to pay for these public services. It is this vocal segment of population with increasing political influence and financial clout, which now sets the agenda in the discourses on education and politics in the state. This, in turn, has led to the shifting of priorities of public spending away from social services, which the middle class is no longer availing.

There are a number of factors behind the formation of the middle class. Higher education itself has helped the formation of this class. Those who have received higher education, thanks to the large subsidy from the government in the past, have themselves moved into the new middle class. The growth of commercial agriculture and employment in industry and the service sectors has also contributed to the growth of this class. Land reforms helped the erstwhile tenants who were mostly belonging to middle castes and communities to throw away the feudal yoke and to become middle peasants. International migration has also helped in the formation of the middle class.

Expanding educational opportunities irrespective of regions, religions, castes and classes, was top most in the agenda of all the political parties in the past. State funding of education directly or through liberal grants-in-aid to private agencies (an earlier version of today’s public-private participation) helped the process of expanding educational opportunities. Till recently, the need for subsidising education by the government was not a contested issue among the political parties. It is this political consensus in the state, which had contributed to the Kerala model of educational and social development. But the political parties today do not have any clear strategy of protecting the gains of the Kerala model of development from the onslaught of privatisation and marketisation emanating from within and outside the country. Part of the reason for this situation lies in the growing influence of the affluent middle class in all political parties. Besides, avowedly due to the fiscal crisis from the middle of the 1980s, all the political parties had gone, to varying degrees, for the easier o ption of leaving the system to the market. They do not seem to have any new strategy for keeping the system inclusive against the odds of changing environment within and outside the state.

Due to historical reasons, both the demand for and supply of educational opportunities were created largely by religious groups and community organisations. The educational development in the state was spearheaded by Christian missionaries, l ocal parishes, Nair Service Society (NSS), Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDPY) and the Muslim Educational Society (Nair 1981; Tharakan 1984). Those agencies were guided by the educational and social needs of both their own communities and the society

SPECIAL ARTICLE

around. Some of these private agencies were instrumental in taking education to backward regions, castes and socially and economically disadvantaged groups. Girls’ education was also promoted by some of these agencies. The resources for starting schools and colleges were mobilised from the locality or from within the community using a variety of very ingenious techniques. Fees from the students constituted only one of the resources meant to meet at best, the recurrent expenditure. In other words, privatisation did not lead to commercialisation of education. The state supported these agencies in a number of ways (George et al 2003). As in the case of political parties, the present leadership of these community organisations, which were formed in the wake of the social reform movements, no longer has got any lofty agenda. Unlike the earlier leaders of these organisations, the new leaders lack a clear vision regarding the desirable course for Kerala society. New initiatives to address the educational needs of the marginalised communities and the poor even in their own communities seldom comes from these community organisations.

All the religious and caste organisations in the course of time developed into pressure groups (George 1998). From the very b eginning, they had developed a strong clout in Kerala politics. In fact, new political parties have been formed, largely to protect the interests of some of these communities. Kathleen Gough had brought out clearly the essentially communal character of the p olitical movements in Kerala way back in 1969. She wrote:

The correlation between caste, rank and party support raises the question of ‘casteism’ in Kerala politics… All parties in their efforts to control more seats jockey for influence with one or another communal a ssociation, NSS, SNDP, Muslim League and Catholic Church (Gough 1969).9

The whole politics of Kerala thus came to be dominated by these organisations, which had developed a vested interest in the issue of ownership and control of educational institutions and not on the education of the deprived.

The political clout of the educational agencies and communal organisations was so strong that it could defeat all attempts to curtail the unhealthy labour practices of the private managements, made repeatedly by the rulers of Travancore and subsequently by both the Communist and Congress governments (Mathew 1989). As a result, none of the governments, whether under United Democratic Front (UDF) or Left Democratic Front (LDF)10 has been able to curtail the widespread corruption, nepotism and communalisation in appointment of teachers in aided schools and colleges. Since a large number of educational institutions are run by minority religious groups like Christians and Muslims, the minority rights enshrined in the Constitution become an added weapon to protect their community and economic interests in education.11 The increase in corruption and the nepotism in the appointment of teachers in private educational institutions has also led to the exclusion of teachers from poor economic backgrounds to enter the teaching profession.

5 Implications

At the beginning of this paper, we have noted some of the laudable aspects of Kerala’s educational development, which have been taken cognisance of by both scholars and development agencies. Some of the trends in the 1990s and afterwards, however, are

60 threatening to undermine these achievements and their bene ficial impact on Kerala society. Commercialisation, communalisation and politicisation are now entering the educational system in a big way with possible long-term consequences to the whole Kerala society. It is likely to undermine the inclusive f eatures of the nationally and internationally applauded Kerala model of development.

The social and economic mobility made possible by the educational system in the past is now becoming near impossible due to the commercialisation of education at all levels. It appears that while the passports to unemployment are issued to every one through subsidised general education, often of low quality, the same to employment opportunities are issued only to the elite groups, carved out on the basis of their financial and social background, which can afford the full cost of education (CSES 1997). This inequitable growth trend and the consequent denial of o pportunities to large segments of society for upward mobility can adversely affect the state’s relatively high degree of social stability and harmony.

Almost all discussions on self-financing educational institutions highlight mostly the financial and equity issues. The impact of commercialisation on the quality of education and the capabilities of the educated manpower are not receiving due attention. The performance of the students in self-financing colleges affiliated to Kerala University shows that it is much below that of students in government owned or aided colleges.12 The two government engineering colleges (College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram and Government Engineering College, Thiruvananthapuram) and the private engineering college (TKM College of Engineering, Kollam) aided by the government under the University of Kerala together had a pass percentage of 67.3%. As against this, the self-financing colleges (in the government sector and the private sector) together could achieve a pass percentage of only 35.6%. Some of the selffinancing colleges in the private sector could manage to get only a pass percentage of 10-15%. Kulavelil (2008) brings out the performance of the BTech s tudents in the Cochin University of Science and Technology, which runs the BTech courses on a self-financing basis. The pass percentage for BTech was just 33%. Out of the 3,100 students who appeared for the examinations, 2,077 failed.

Many studies have shown that the reach of the self-financing professional institutions is limited to only 5-10% of the households in the state (Kumar 2004; Salim 2004; CSES 1997). This implies that these institutions, and consequently, the state are not able to tap the diversity of talents, backgrounds, attitudes and creativity of the vast majority of young persons. The longterm consequences of this development to the competitiveness of the state’s economy, operating in an increasingly human capitaldriven world economy are not yet receiving the attention they deserve from the opinion leaders and policymakers in the state, engrossed as they are with short-term financial considerations.

At the school level, a new generation of students who have l ittle knowledge of the local language, literature, culture, history and even geography is emerging in the state. They are a socially disengaged lot insulated from the Kerala society. The concept of neighbourhood schools is now at a discount as students are transported over long distances. These students are disconnected from their neighbourhood and lack local community identity and feelings. Two classes of students seem to be emerging in the state and

october 10, 2009 vol xliv no 41

SPECIAL ARTICLE

helping the break-up of the barriers separating

one caste from another has only strengthened

them in some respects… They remain as exclusive

as ever… Each caste wants to continue as a sepa

rate unit of the body politic, so that its interests

may not suffer from want of advocacy.” The edu

cated persons belonging to different communities

though basically communal in their attitudes

t owards social, political and economic problems

combined to make a new influential middle class

section which managed to arrogate themselves

leadership positions in almost all the social and

political organisations in the state. This is one of

the reasons why, in spite of the spread of educa

tion among the masses, political movements in

Kerala are wagged by communal organisations to

10 The United Democratic Front is led by the

Congress(I) and the Left Democratic Front is led

by the CPI(M). These fronts form government

a lternately in the state.

run professional colleges. Such agencies include Kerala State Road Transport Corporation and the 11 It may be noted in this context that, the share of Centre for Continuing Education. The NORKA minority religions in Kerala’s population is much (Non-resident Keralites Department of the Gov-higher than in the country. Muslims constitute ernment of Kerala) also has recently announced one-fourth (24.7%) of the population as against their plans to start self-financing professional col-12.4% in the country. The share of Christians in leges avowedly for the benefit of non-resident the population is nearly one-fifth (19.0%) as Keralites. On the pretext of the lack of social con-against 2.3% in the country trol of the government over the private self-12 College-wise data on the pass percentage for financing institutions, the government promoted d ifferent engineering courses under the Universithe formation of student-funded professional ty of Kerala are available at www.kucc.keralaunic olleges in the cooperative sector. The societal versity.edu viewed on 12 December 2008. control of the latter is debatable. 5 At present, the performance of students in the Plus 2 level examinations has no bearing on the

CSES (1997): Entry Barriers to Professional Education a situation whereby the students neglect their

in Kerala (Kochi: Centre for Socio-Economic and regular studies at the Plus 2 level and concentrate

Environmental Studies). on preparing for entrance examination. Conse

– (2002): Status Report on Pre-School Education in

Kerala (Kochi: CSES).

– (2003): Report of the Evaluation of Alternative

Schooling System under DPEP in Kerala (Kochi:

George, Ann (2001): “Multiple Dimensions of Well

B eing: A Micro-level Study of the Poor”, MPhil

Dissertation, Centre for Development Studies,

Thiruvananthapuram.

George, K K (1998): “Historical Roots of Kerala Model

and Its Present Crisis”, Bulletin of Concerned Asian

Scholars, 30(4), 35-52.

lakhs in 1981 to 86 lakhs in 1991 and further to 74 lakhs in 2001. There was also a decline in the size George K K, George Zachariah and N Ajith Kumar of the households. According to census data, the (2003): “Grants-In-Aid Policies and Practices average size of a household in Kerala was 5.8 per-t owards Secondary Education in Kerala”, Journal sons in 1981 and 5.3 persons in 1991. It came down of Educational Planning and Administration, 17(2): to 4.7 persons by 2001. 199-226.

7 The annual compound growth rates during these George, K K and K K Krishnakumar (2003): Fiscal decades were only 1.41%, 0.45% and 1.87%, Management in Kerala: Constraints and Policy r espectively. These rates were lower than the O ptions, Working Paper No 9 (Kochi: CSES). growth rates for the country as a whole (K K Sub-George K K and P K M Tharakan (2005): “Sustainable ramanian 2003). Human Development in Kerala: Some Issues”, 8 According to the study by Himanshu (2007), the A dvances in Arts and Ideas, Vol 1, 125-28. inequality measured by Gini ratios has worsened George M K and J Domi (2002): Residual Illiteracy in a both in rural and urban areas of Kerala between Coastal Village: Poovar Village of Thiruvanan1993-94 and 2004-05. The Gini ratio for the rural thapuram District, KRPLLD Discussion Paper areas of Kerala increased from 30.1 in 1993-94 to No 45 (Thiruvananthapuram: CDS).

Economic & Political Weekly october 10, 2009 vol xliv no 41

EPW

Gough, Kathleen (1969): “Village Politics in Kerala” in A R Desai (ed.), Rural Sociology in India (Bombay: Popular Prakashan), quoted in P R Gopinathan Nair (1981): Primary Education, Population Growth and Socio-Economic Change (New Delhi: Allied).

GoK (1991): Economic Review 1991, Kerala State Planning Board, Governemnt of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.

– (2006): Kerala Human Development Report 2005, Kerala State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram.

– (2007): Report of the Survey on Unrecognised Schools in Kerala, Department of Economics and Statistics, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.

– (2008): Economic Review 2007: Kerala State, Planning Board, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram.

Himanshu (2007): “Recent Trends in Poverty and Inequality: Some Preliminary Results”, Economic & Political Weekly, 42(6): 497-508.

Kulavelil, Joy Job (2008): “Athidhikalavunna Adhyapakar” (Malayalam) (Teachers becoming Guests), Samakalika Malayalam, 12 (15).

Kumar, Ajith N (2004): “Private Cost of Medical and Para-Medical Education in Kerala” in K N Nair and P R Gopinathan Nair (ed.), Higher Education in Kerala-Micro Level Perspectives (Delhi: Daanish Books).

Mathew, George (1989): Communal Road to Secular Kerala (New Delhi: Concept Publishing House).

Mitra, Ashok (1999): Report of the Kerala Education Commission (Kochi: Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad).

Nair, Gopalakrishnan N (2004): Household Cost of School Education, KRPLLD Discussion Paper No 64 (Thiruvananthapuram: CDS).

Nair, Gopinathan P R (1981): Primary Education, P opulation Growth and Socio-Economic Change (New Delhi: Allied).

Nampoothiri, Sambhu N (2004): Costs of Schooling in Kerala: A Study of Private and Institutional Costs under Different Types of Management, KRPLLD Discussion Paper No 77 (Thiruvananthapuram: CDS).

NSSO (2007): Household Consumption of Various Goods and Services in India, 2004-05, Report No 509, National Sample Survey 61st Round (New Delhi: NSSO).

Salim, Abdul A (2004): Opportunities for Higher Education: An Enquiry into Entry Barriers, KRPLLD Discussion Paper No 71 (Thiruvananthapuram: CDS).

Subramanian, K K (2003): Regional Industrial Growth under Economic Liberalisation (Delhi: Manak Publications).

Tharakan, Michael P K (1984): “Socio-economic F actors in Educational Development: The Case of Nineteenth Century Travancore”, Economic & P olitical Weekly, November 7-17.

Tharakan, Michael P K, Parvathy Sunaina and Ajith Kumar N (2004): “Strategies and Dynamics of Change in Indian Education: State Paper on Kerala”, paper presented at the National Seminar on “Strategies and Dynamics of Change in Indian Education” organised jointly by IAMR and CARE, New Delhi, 25-27 November.

Zachariah, K C and S Irudaya Rajan (2007): Migration, Remittances and Employment: Short-Term Trends and Long-Term Implications, Working P aper No 395 (Thiruvananthapuram: CDS).