Tharoor Pens Two-Part Column on Kerala's Education Future
Synopsis
Congress MP Dr. Shashi Tharoor published a two-part column on higher education in Kerala on 29 September 2026, exploring how the state must move beyond degrees toward employability and research, framed against the backdrop of NEP 2020.
Key Takeaways
Shashi Tharoor published a two-part column on 29 September 2026 on higher education in Kerala .
The series, titled 'The Knowledge We Inherit, the Future We Create' and 'Beyond Degrees: Reimagining Higher Education in Kerala,' appears in his regular column 'I Mean What I Say.' Kerala holds India's highest literacy rate but faces growing debates around employability, research output, and skill integration.
The National Education Policy 2020 introduced a four-year undergraduate framework and multiple entry-exit options that require active state-level decisions.
Tharoor represents Thiruvananthapuram , home to key science and higher-education institutions, giving his analysis direct local stakes.
The column arrives as Kerala 's response to NEP 2020 provisions on curriculum and university autonomy remains contested.
What does the future of learning look like for a state that already leads India in literacy — but may be falling behind on employability and research? Congress MP Dr. Shashi Tharoor has turned that question into a two-part column published on 29 September 2026, examining the future of higher education specifically through the lens of Kerala.
The two-part series, titled 'The Knowledge We Inherit, the Future We Create' and 'Beyond Degrees: Reimagining Higher Education in Kerala,' appears in Tharoor's regular column 'I Mean What I Say' in Mathrubhumi English. Together, the pieces explore how Kerala — a state that built its identity on public education and social development — must now reckon with a rapidly shifting knowledge economy.
Why Kerala's Education Edge Is Being Tested
Kerala holds India's highest literacy rate and has long anchored its social model on accessible, quality public schooling. But high literacy and high employability are not the same thing. Indian states have wrestled with this gap since the arrival of the National Education Policy 2020, which replaced the 1986 policy and introduced multidisciplinary education, multiple entry-exit options, and a four-year undergraduate programme framework — all of which require states to make active choices about curriculum design and university autonomy.
Kerala has historically emphasised access and equity, but debates are intensifying around research output, skill integration, and alignment with emerging job markets. Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram — the state capital and a growing hub for science, technology, and public institutions — brings both a legislator's accountability and a global policy practitioner's perspective to the question.
From Inherited Knowledge to Imagined Futures
The column titles themselves signal a deliberate arc: the first piece situates Kerala's educational inheritance — what the state built, what it stands for — while the second pushes into prescriptive territory, asking what higher education must become rather than what it has been. The phrase 'beyond degrees' is pointed: it gestures at a broader critique of credential-chasing over genuine capability-building, a concern shared by education reformers nationally and globally.
Tharoor, a former UN Under-Secretary-General and former Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Human Resource Development, has consistently engaged with education policy through Parliament and public writing. His constituency of Thiruvananthapuram is home to institutions including the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology and several central universities, making the local stakes of higher-education reform unusually concrete for him.
The NEP Question Hanging Over Kerala
The NEP 2020's provisions on curriculum flexibility and university autonomy remain contentious in Kerala, where state government responses have been cautious. Any state-level rethinking of skill integration in higher education — the kind Tharoor's column appears to advocate — would inevitably intersect with these unresolved tensions between central policy architecture and state implementation. The column arrives at a moment when that conversation is far from settled.
A legislator writing seriously about his own state's educational crossroads — not from a press conference but through a sustained, two-part analytical column — is itself a signal that the debate deserves more than a policy circular. Kerala, and India, will be watching what follows the words.
Point of View
Two-part analytical column — rather than a parliamentary statement or party brief — reflects a strand of Indian politics where intellectual output is itself a form of constituency outreach. The timing is significant: NEP 2020 has placed states at a genuine crossroads on university autonomy and curriculum, and Kerala's historically equity-first model is under pressure to prove it can also deliver employability and research excellence. For a Congress MP from a state the party governs, framing the debate around 'beyond degrees' allows engagement with reform without directly confronting the ruling Left government's pace of NEP adoption. It is the kind of column that quietly shapes the terms of a coming policy argument.
NationPress
29 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Shashi Tharoor write about Kerala education?
Dr. Shashi Tharoor published a two-part column on 29 September 2026 examining the future of higher education in Kerala , covering topics such as inherited educational strengths, employability, research output, and the need to move 'beyond degrees' toward genuine capability-building.
What is the NEP 2020 and how does it affect Kerala?
The National Education Policy 2020 replaced India's 1986 education policy and introduced a four-year undergraduate programme, multiple entry-exit options, and multidisciplinary education. For Kerala , it requires decisions on curriculum design and university autonomy that the state has approached cautiously.
Why does Kerala need to reimagine higher education?
Kerala leads India in literacy but faces growing concern that high literacy does not automatically translate into employability or strong research output. As the knowledge economy evolves, the state's equity-focused model is being tested against demands for skill integration and global competitiveness.
Where does Tharoor publish his columns?
Dr. Tharoor publishes his regular column, titled 'I Mean What I Say,' in the English edition of Mathrubhumi , a major Kerala-based media group.
What institutions are in Tharoor's constituency Thiruvananthapuram?
Thiruvananthapuram , the Kerala capital and Tharoor's parliamentary constituency, is home to institutions including the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology and several central universities, making higher-education reform a directly local policy concern for him.
