One more school year has commenced and all the schools/colleges are busy with all the necessary arrangements required for the new academic year! Within the available resources and possibilities, every school wants to create good ambiance and environment that provides a conducive atmosphere for a good beginning of the year and for the satisfaction of the students and their parents.
With new admissions in varying numbers, there might be joy or disappointment about the expected total number of students on the rolls! Well, we have to accept the changes in the policies of the government and the changes in society. Parents look for quality education and that too in the most sought-after and popular schools. Unfortunately, our aided schools are presently going through difficult times and we are almost being pushed out or forced to exit from this important centuries-long service to society, especially to the poor, the marginalized, and the lower middle-class sections in society.
One of the three important areas the Catholic Church in India made a substantial contribution to society is in the field of education. The other areas of the apostolate are health care and socio-economic development of the poor. This service to the nation in the field of education is widely acknowledged and appreciated by people across the country. It is not only the big English medium schools or colleges that are given the credit but for reaching out to the remote corners in the rural India.
Through a wide network the Church could bring education to the door step of the simple, poor, and the neglected sections of society. Thanks be to God for our government aided schools and hostels which played a constructive role in making quality education accessible to the poor and the middle class families, either totally free or at an affordable minimum cost. Hundreds of students leaving the portals of our Christian schools every year bear witness to the invaluable contribution of the Christian educational institutions.
In partnership with the government the Church could accomplish the great mission of eradicating the evil of illiteracy. It is sad to state that the gradual withdrawal of the financial support of the government to the aided schools under private managements is slowly eliminating this private partnership and collaboration. Self-financing by charging the students monthly fees to pay the teaching and non-teaching staff is not easily possible for the Telugu medium schools which serve mostly the poor and lower middle class.
In many ways aided schools under private managements are like the government-run schools in serving the poor. Aided schools under Christian management have given the best quality education to those who could not afford the cost of the private English medium schools. But, Christian managements have also to accept that they have contributed towards a ‘social divide’, Telugu medium schools, government or aided, are mainly for the economically poor and the English medium private schools are only for those who can pay, the rich and the upper middle class!
Tomorrow: Andhra: R.C.M. (Aided) Schools, Soon a Story of the Past?