Admission test: Catholic Schools turn down Govt appeal
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 23 2013: The appeal of the State Government to stop conducting admission tests for students seeking enrolment at elementary level in Catholic Schools run by Christian missionaries in the State has been out rightly turned down by the authorities of Catholic Schools.

According to a highly placed source, a meeting was convened in the office chamber of Education Minister Moirangthem Okendro along with the authorities of the Catholic Schools yesterday over the issue of proposed admission tests in all Catholic Schools of the State for admission to students at elementary level.

The meeting was called by the Education Minister following pressures from the CSOs, Student Organisations and the public on disallowing admission test in Catholic Schools.

Chaired by Education Minister Moirangthem Okendro, the meeting was attended by Head Master of St Joseph School and Head Mistresses of Little Flower as well as Nirmalabas High School.

During the course of the meeting, Minister M Okendro appealed to the authorities of Catholic schools not to conduct admission tests for enrolling students at the elementary level even if there is a ruling of the Supreme Court which says that the provisions of Right to Education Act would not be applicable to unaided minority and non minority schools not receiving any kind of aid or grants from the Government as it might lead to problem in the event of agitation launched by CSOs, Student organizations.

The appeal of the Education Minister was, however, declined by the authorities of the Catholic schools saying that it would be impossible to withdraw the decision of conducting the admission test since the date has already been fixed.

"Moreover, Catholic schools do not come under the Right to Education Act as it has been clearly mentioned in the ruling of the Supreme Court passed on April 12, 2012", they contended.

The Supreme Court ruling dated 12-04-2012 passed in 'Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan Vs Union of India and Another' states that "RTE Act can be imposed against schools defined under Section 2(n) of the Act, except unaided minority and non-minority schools not receiving any kind of aid or grants to meet their expenses from the appropriate Government or local authorities" .

In the meeting, Fr Jiten, Head Master of St Joseph School, Sangaiprou, told the Education minister that Catholic schools are established mainly for the minority sections of the society.

As such, adhering to the appeal of the State Government would create further problems to the authorities of the Catholic schools who are working for the welfare of minority communities in the State.

This led to a heated argument between the authorities of Catholic schools and the Government officials present in the meeting and Fr Jiten threatened to close down all Catholic schools in the State if the government tries to impose its decision in the functioning of Catholic schools.

Fr Jiten also made it clear that in the event of closure, Catholic Schools would be re-opened only after the entire society stands up for them (Catholic schools), the source added.

The source further revealed that an official of the State Government who was present during the meeting, countered that even if the State Government does not provide any grant-in-aid to the Catholic schools, they are still affiliated to the Board of Secondary Education and the Board has every right to de-recognise any Catholic school if they were found unfit to run a school owing to lack of essential infrastructures.

However, the Catholic school authorities paid no heed to the suggestion and remained sticking to their decision of conducting admission test for students.

At present there are around 30 Catholic Schools in the State.

Many of these schools lack proper plying ground, infrastructures, separate quarters of gents and lady staffs, no proper equipment in combating natural calamities and no proper drinking water facilities.

If all these factors are taken into consideration, Board of Secondary Education, Manipur could very well de-recognise the Catholic schools at any point of time, the source added.

Meanwhile, when contacted, an expert who is well versed in Right to Education Act informed Hueiyen Lanpao that even though Catholic Schools do not come under the ambit of the Act, the authorities of these schools do not understand the simple logic that there can be no specific recruiting test in schools for students enrolling in nursery class.

If in any case, some of the students failed to get through the admission test, the moral of the student would be completely destroyed.

They do not realize that children can be moulded in whatever way one wants.

As such conducting admission for elementary students is not the right approach at all.

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