Archbishop suggests Church manage Govt. schools for betterment

A prominent archbishop in the country suggests government hand over its schools to the Church for ameliorating its management and making education successful.

Remarking over the poor education standards in government schools, the Archbishop of Delhi, Vincent Concessao said, people reject these schools because "hardly any teaching goes there."

Instead, "they throng Christian schools for admissions," he told UCA News, last week.

"Even ministers request our schools to admit their children. Why our schools get more popularity is due to government schools being less useful."

The archbishop made the statements in response to the government's Right to Education bill, which is to be introduced in the parliament during the monsoon session in mid–June.

The Bill makes education a fundamental right for children in the 6–14 age group. Private Schools have already opposed the Bill as it mandates them to reserve 25% seats to poor children.

However, Archbishop Concessao asserts that Church is interested in the education of poor, who cannot go to private schools. He conveyed that he offered to take over some government schools and that nuns already have started managing non–Church schools on "clear terms."

UCA news further quoted him saying, officials agree proposal for managing the schools, "but in the next breath tell us to finance them." The Church lacks funds, but has the expertise to offer better education, he said, summarizing the situation. "The government has the money, but it does not reach the people."

The Church has however made a clear stand that it would manage the schools, if the government can do the funding.

Recently, the government proposed to pay for the poor students in private schools. This was however a gleeful news to the archbishop.

Says Father Kunnunkal, who headed the Central Board of Secondary Education, 25 years ago, the government manages most primary schools in India, but they remain "largely dysfunctional" since they have "minimum accountability."

The Jesuit educator says even UNICEF urges India to make visible changes in its policies to achieve primary education by 2015.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 20 percent of children in India aged 6–14 are not in school.