The idyllic islands of Lakshadweep may seem like a world unfamiliar to France, but students in both places face problems that are not so dissimilar.
If poor infrastructure, staff shortages, and overcrowding in classrooms are the issues raised by the agitating high school students in France, then abrupt cancellation of courses, stalled semesters, and an entire pool of faculty going out of contract are the major problems encountered by college-goers in Lakshadweep.
After weeks of uncertainty, students of all four government colleges in Lakshadweep have decided to launch a strike on Monday, October 19.
According to the representatives of the PTA Reporter World contacted, hundreds of students attending or awaiting enrolment to undergraduate programmes are unsure of what the future holds as their courses have either been discontinued or are yet to start, even as the semester exams are due next month.
Adding to their woes, almost all the government college teachers, about 60 of them, are at their wits' end as they are without fresh contracts and haven’t been paid in months. The evolving situation is seen as the biggest crisis yet to hit the higher education sector in India's smallest Union Territory (UT).
Teachers run out of contract
On October 15, 2026, the PTA (Parent–Teacher Association) of the Government College of Arts & Science in Androth wrote a letter to the Secretary of Education in Kavaratti, the capital of Lakshadweep, highlighting an issue that needed immediate attention.
“We have received a communication from the principal, stating that the contract engagements for all faculty members concluded on August 31, 2026. Despite this, these dedicated faculties have continued to conduct classes daily during working hours since September 1, 2026, and up to the present, even without formal re-engagement orders, prioritising the students’ educational welfare.”
The PTA noted that it was ‘unsustainable’ to continue in the same way without a resolution. “Consequently, a decision has been made to suspend classes starting this coming Monday, should no clear guidance from the Department (Education) be received by 5 pm on October 16, 2026.”
“They have not responded to any of our letters,” said Aboo Androth, an executive member of the institution’s PTA. “So, on Monday, the students will start a token strike, and we will also give a petition to the Collector. If still there is no resolution to the issues, the protests will intensify.”
If there is no resolution, the protests will intensify
Aboo Androth, PTA member, Androth
The PTA of the only other Government Arts & Science College in Lakshadweep, which is situated in the island of Kadmat, is in the same situation. “Right now, every college teacher in Lakshadweep is without a contract,” said a teacher in Kadmat, requesting anonymity. “To be clear, all teachers in all four government colleges in Lakshadweep are contract staff. Their one-year contracts used to be renewed automatically by the end of August. This year, it did not happen.”
Androth and Kadmat are among the 10 inhabited islands in the archipelago of Lakshadweep that is home to 36 atolls. According to the Lakshadweep Administration, the other two higher education institutions in the UT are the College of Education, Kadmat and Polytechnic College, Minicoy.
Cessation of courses
“One night sometime in early July I got a call from a student, who asked me if their course had been stopped?” said a college teacher in Androth, requesting anonymity. “I had no idea. The children had got the news before us. The surprising thing was that it was true. What was strange was that the course was BA Political Science.”
According to the teacher, BA Political Science used to be the most sought-after undergraduate course in Lakshadweep. “Almost every year the 40 seats would fill up fast. The pass rate was also equally good; it was often in the 90-95% range.”
BA Aquaculture was another course that was stopped mid-year. On July 9, at least 87 students of the Androth college signed a petition that was sent to the Director of Education, requesting the courses to be retained, “safeguarding the general interests of the people of Lakshadweep”.
Around the same time, scores of students, who had opted for B. Voc (Bachelor of Vocation) in Tourism and Service Industry and B. Voc Software Development in Kadmat, were in for a shock on the eve of their counselling because those programmes were also stopped. “I don’t want to just call it unacceptable. It is worse than that, and there must be a stronger word to describe the feeling,” said the teacher in Kadmat.
“A lot of them got good marks in plus-two, and have secured the sponsor letters,” the teacher said. A sponsor letter or nomination letter is a document issued by the Department of Education, allowing native students to secure seats for higher studies. “One thing that must be considered very seriously is that the majority of these students are from poor backgrounds. They cannot afford to go to the mainland, so they chose to continue here in the islands and study in our colleges. But now there’s a big question mark on their future.”
According to the teacher, the Directorate of Education recommended two fresh courses, B. Sc. Computer Science and BBA in Tourism. The students, who expressed interest, were given provisional admission, but the courses are yet to start.
When Reporter World reached out to Attakoya, the Nodal Officer for Higher Education in Lakshadweep, he refused to discuss the issues. “I don’t know. I have nothing to say. Ok, ok,” he said and cut the call.
“They don’t have a clue about education,” said Mohammed Thashrif M. K., a student of the Kadmat college. “I don’t think colleges anywhere else in India have such weird systems. We even have regular classes on all Saturdays, and the tuition hours are longer than anywhere else. They are stopping all good courses; even a BA Arabic programme was discontinued. I think they aim to shut down all the colleges in Lakshadweep.”
We are going to protest because we have to continue our studies
Mohammed Thashrif M. K., student leader
Thashrif’s course, BA English, is also among those on the hitlist. He’s in his final year of the course and fears his batch might be the last in Lakshadweep to secure a degree in Literature. “We are going to protest because we have to continue our studies,” Thashrif said. He is the chairperson of the institution’s students’ council.
Rajeena Beegum is another student who is worried about the developments. “Our semester exams are in November. The classes have not been completed because our teachers’ contracts have expired. We don’t have a choice. Things must be resolved because it concerns the future of everyone,” said the final year B. Voc Software Development student.
Everything was smooth, then everything wasn’t
The residents of Lakshadweep maintain a close connection with Keralam, which is their entry point to the mainland. The people of Lakshadweep reach Kochi, and from there to other parts of the state, mostly for their healthcare needs and education.
It was in the 1940s that Lakshadweep’s Amini island got its first government school. It took twenty more years for the high schools to come up. Back then, Lakshadweep borrowed its school curriculum from Keralam. Even now, the majority of the faculty in Lakshadweep colleges are from Keralam. Their Santosh Trophy football teams are also often coached by trainers from north Kerala; the latest to hold the position is C. M. Deepak from Kozhikode.
But there was another special bond between north Keralam and Lakshadweep. The colleges in the islands were affiliated to the University of Calicut since its inception. “The colleges in Androth and Kadmat were started in 2005 as centres of the Calicut University. The university appointed the faculty and it had a Lakshadweep cell and even a dedicated Dean for higher education. The funding alone was done by the Lakshadweep administration,” said a college teacher in Androth, also preferring anonymity.
By the end of 2020, Praful Patel was appointed as the Administrator of Lakshadweep, and what followed was a series of reforms in higher education, said Abdul Javad PA, President of the Lakshadweep Students Association (LSA) Central Committee. “Several courses with high student enrolment were scrapped, and the administration said not to admit new students to those courses. When the issue was raised, the administration presented the changes as an effort to replace old courses with updated ones,” Javad said.
Within a year of Patel’s arrival, the Director of Education informed the colleges in the islands that the affiliation with the University of Calicut has been discontinued. The administration signed an MoU with Pondicherry University, and on January 1, 2022, then Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu, freshly inaugurated the Arts & Science colleges in Kadmat and Androth, with new courses announced by Pondicherry University.
The teacher in Androth Reporter World contacted said applications were called for a year ago for the new courses. The Board of Studies was set up for a preliminary enquiry, and it found that there were no lab facilities. “The Pondicherry University is very good. But they cannot take decisions related to the functioning of the institutions; it must be done by the island’s administration, which sadly, has not done enough.”
Social worker Syed Hamid Cheriyakoya does not mince any words. “The administrator mostly behaves like a monarch, and those working under him are scared to make decisions,” he said. “He visits the island once in a while and leaves soon, but takes no systemic action to resolve the issues.”
Meanwhile, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the nationwide youth-led movement, has reportedly offered its support to the student protests in Lakshadweep. Aboo Androth claims to be the spokesperson of the CJP in the islands. He says the CJP has called an online meeting of all political parties in Lakshadweep to chart out further action.
