| M. A. Baby | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 5, 1954 Prakkulam, Kollam |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Occupation | Education and Cultural Affairs Minister of Kerala State and Central Committee Member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
| Home town | Kollam |
| Political party | Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
| Religion | Atheist, Born as Christian-Roman Catholic Latin |
| Spouse | Betty Louis |
| Children | Ashok Betty Nelson |
M. A. Baby (Mariam Alexander Baby) is an Indian politician. He is the former Education Minister[1] of Kerala State. He is also a Central Committee Member of Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Son of Shri. P.M. Alexander and Smt. Lilly Alexander, born on April 5, 1954, completed BA degree course in Political Science. Baby could not write the final year examination, and during emergency after having been arrested under DIR and jailed, he abandoned formal education. Baby entered in politics through Kerala Students Federation, the predecessor of Student Federation of India, while Studying at NSS high school Prakkulam. Held many responsible positions in Student Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India, and CPI (M). Imprisoned and tortured during Emergency. Elected to Rajysabha at the age of 32 and became one of the youngest members of Rajya Sabha.
As Minister of Education in the V. S. Achuthanandan ministry (2006-'11), be brought in drastic changes in the education sector in Kerala. His most noteworthy reforms were aimed at making the teaching-learning process more balanced. He implemented the single window admission processing for higher secondary education. Despite the opposition of private managements controlled by caste and religious factions, the implementation of single window admission brought in much needed professionalism and discipline in the admission process in higher secondary education in Kerala. Another notable change was the implementation of grading system in high schools.
This helped bringing transparency in grading the students with internal assessments and other allied evaluation methods. He was the inspiration behind implementing new Physical Education syllabus for schools in Kerala state. A sportsman and ardent sport fan, Mr. Baby also provided much needed impetus to the Kerala school sports by revising the competition manual and providing a hike in prize money to the winning athletes. He also prompted the revision of the competition manual for kearala school arts festival.
Recently he announced that marks for higher secondary examination would be taken into consideration for the admission to the professional colleges in Kerala. However there have been a lot opposition to his work which was mostly from teachers organisations and student organisations supported by opposition parties. They raised allegations against some of his reforms. The private managements also were against him. There have also been allegations raised against promotion of unqualified teachers to the post of principals in IHRDs. He was also generally criticised for allocation of private schools quoting the educational backwardness of the Malabar region of the state.