Joseph Mundassery - As An Educationalist

As An Educationalist

Prof. Joseph Mundassery’s fame as an educationalist rests partly to the reforms that he partially succeeded in bringing about in the educational sector in Kerala when he was the Education Minister. He is the author of the controversial Education Bill of the First communist ministry of Kerala. To a great extend the proposed bill directly led to the snowballing of the Vimochana Samaram and the subsequent downfall of the E.M.S. Namboodiripad's first communist ministry in 1958.

Even though the Education Bill failed to pass through the Assembly many of its provisions were later implemented by subsequent governments with amendments. As the Education Minister of the first democratically elected ministry of the newly formed State of Kerala, Mundassery was instrumental in the establishment and restructuring of some of the early universities and prime educational institutions of the state. He was the Vice Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

Mundassery was the guru of many pupils at St. Thomas College, Trichur, among whom were the future prominent leaders of Kerala like C. Achutha Menon and Mathai Manjooran.

Prof. Joseph Mundassery died in 1977 after a life of serving the Kerala State in its cultural, educational, and political spheres for about half a century.