Knowing that school education is a very important medium to improve the lives of the people and bring about the desired social change, many dioceses and religious congregations run schools. In fact, there may not be many dioceses or provinces of a religious congregation that do not run schools. Thus, school education has been a traditional as well as a much-needed ministry for us. Some of our schools are government-aided, either fully or partly; others are not. Even if fully supported, we still need funds for the other needs of the school, such as building repair and maintenance, infrastructure development, teaching aids, office maintenance, etc. Thus, finance is a real need for any school.
We are good in starting and running good schools. Our schools are known for their educational standard, discipline and all-round development of the students. There is a good demand for admission in our schools. Normally, through a process of screening and selection, we admit the best of the students, provide the best of the facilities and create a record-performance by way of producing the best results in the city, district, state and even at the national-level. But, as days go by, and we re-look at our educational mission, we ask ourselves whether we are justified in doing just that. We ask: “What about the vast majority of those who cannot afford to pay the required fees and get the benefit of our schools? Are we not to serve them in a preferential way as our Lord Himself did?” Such an awakening has posed a great challenge to us. Thus, the main challenge for us is to keep the school educational ministry more and more relevant and meaningful to the present times by serving the poor, downtrodden and needy. The challenge for us is to educate the ordinary poor students and make them extra-ordinary citizens. It is to have our option for the economically poor in our institutions and works. This means that we must open our schools to the more and more economically deprived sections of society. This can be done by either fixing a quota for the poor in our schools or by starting schools in the rural areas specifically for the poor.
Fr Alex G., SJ
To read the entire article, click Subscribe
