Kerala chapter of the Students’ Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) hosted the first-of-its kind ‘Kerala Education Congress’ (KEC) on 16th & 17th November 2013 at Thiruvananthapuram city. The event witnessed a huge participation of academicians, educational activists and students from across the state. 75 research papers on various subjects were presented during the two-day event. Besides academic sessions, there were also table talks, seminars, media interaction and experience-sharing sessions in the event.

Former Education Minister of Kerala and Member of Parliament, Mohammed Basher inaugurated KEC at Senate Hall of Kerala University and presented the key-note address.

Former Vice-Chancellor of AMU, Prof. P.K Abdul Azeez,  Vice Chairman of Higher Education Department of Kerala, TP Sreenivasan, Former Vice-Chancellor of Pondicheri University, Dr. J.A.K. Thareen, Acting Vice-Chancellor of Kerala University, Dr. Veeramanikandan, State Patron of SIO Kerala, T Arif Ali, State President of SIO Kerala, S. Irshad also spoke during the inaugural session. Education special issue of the journal, ‘Campus Alive’ was released during this session.

The two-day event was conducted in 5 different auditoriums as parallel sessions under three broad themes, namely School Education, Higher Education and Education Philosophy.

Ramesh Patnaik, Organizing Secretary of All India Forum for Right to Education (RTE) presented key-note address in School Education session, which was chaired by R.Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of NUEPA, Delhi and Dr. Gokul Das Pillai, Curriculum Committee Member of SCERT.

In the Higher Education area, following were the sessions and the speakers:

1. Research Education in Kerala – Trends/ Gaps (Key-note address by Dr. V.N. Raja Shekharan Pillai, Executive Vice-President of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology & Environment and Former Vice-Chancellor of IGNOU and chaired by Dr. M. Shahin, Asst. Prof at University of Calicut)
2. Religious Education – the way forward (Key-note address by O. Abdul Rahman Editor of Madhyamam and chaired by R. Yousuf, Associate Prof at IIU Malaysiya)
3. Master plan of Higher Education – Policy/Trends /Reforms (Key-note address by A. Sukumaran Nair, Former Vice-Chancellor of MG University)
4. Access & Inclusiveness of Higher Education – Concerns & Barriers (Key-note address by Padmashri  Jak Thareen, Former Vice-Chancellor of Pondichery University and chaired by Dr. Mohammed Badeezuman from Board of Studies, Calicut university, Kerala)
5. University Administration Issues – Educational Strategies (Key-note address by Dr. Abdul Azeez, Former Vice-Chancellor  of AMU and chaired by Prof. G. Gopu Kumar)
6. Technical Education – Challenges & Opportunities (Key-note address by Dr. Kuncheria P Isacc, Secretary of All India Council for Technical Education and chaired by Prof. RVG Menon and expert talk by Prof. POJ Labba
7. Finance in Higher Education – Problems & Trends (Key-note address by Saumen Chatto, Asst. Prof. of JNU and chaired by Dr. Sarngatharin, Former Dean at Faculty of Economics at Kerala university)

In the Education concept area, following were the sessions and the speakers:

1. Alternative Education – Experiments & Analysis (Key-note address by Deborab Redriznez and chaired by Prof. Ramu Manivannan, HOD Dept. of Politics and Public administration at University of Madras)
2. Philosophy of Education (Key-note address by Prof. Rohit Dhankar from Azim Premji university and chaired by Prof. Mohammed Ayiroor)
3. Inclusive Education – What & Why? (Key-note address by Dr. KKN Kurup, Former Vice-Chancellor at Calicut university)

There was a table talk on ‘Autonomous Colleges’, in which leaders from various student organizations and college authorities participated. There was also an interesting media debate on the topic ‘Media Perspective of Education’ in which media personnel participated

The event concluded with a program addressed by Prof. R Govinda, Vice-Chancellor of NUEPA, M.K. Mohammed Ali, Asst. President of JIH Kerala, Prof. R. Yousuf from Islamic university of Malaysia, P. Mujeeburahan, General secretary of JIH, S Irshad, State President of SIO, A Anas, Director of KEC, Thoufeeq K.P, General Convener of KEC.