Christian schools unhappy with draft education bill

Mou Chakraborty
January, Kolkata 20, 2007

Christian schools are unhappy with the school education ministry’s draft Education Bill, which would allow the latter to regulate schools’ administration, teachers’ salary and tuition fees once it becomes a law.
Representative of 83 Christian school founder bodies met under the umbrella of West Bengal Association of Christian Schools (WBACS) and the education cell of Bangiya Christiya Pariseba (BCP) on Saturday to discuss the matter.
“None of the 17 points in the draft ensure protection of the rights given to us minority institutions by the Constitution. We are suggesting some amendments, which we have drafted today and will be submitting to the school education ministry very soon,” said Herod Mallick, general secretary of BCP.
A major disagreement is over the government being allowed to decide the fees structure of any school. “We want the founder bodies of schools to decide the fee structure. This is because the money collected from schools where we charge high fees goes to schools that we run for the destitute. Moreover, as a minority institution we have the right to decide our school fees,” said Dr Shailesh Mukhopadhyay, secretary, WBACS.
Christian schools are also against holding elections among guardian representatives for a berth in the general body. They themselves have been nominating the representatives all these days, but the proposed Bill is asking them to do otherwise. WBACS feels elections among guardian representatives would create chaos and in no way contribute to the academic environment.
They are also enraged at the proposed school-mapping programme, under which only the ministry can decide where in the state new schools can come up. “Minority schools should be kept out of such programmes. We would like to ensure that the final draft of the Bill looks after all these shortfalls and helps minority institutions protect their rights,” said Mullick.
The meeting also undertook to revise recruitment rules to be followed by the Christian schools. From now on academic qualification, ability to communicate with students and psychological inclination towards teaching in a minority institution would be given utmost importance while selecting a teacher.
It was also decided that if the schools select a clergy to head the institutions they can fill up the post without giving advertisements in newspapers.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com