Present Scenario:

The Religious have been pioneers in the areas of education, medicine, social work, and evangelization.  But today by and large we, as Religious Congregations, are engaged in the field of education. Our contribution in medical area today is very minimal; in social work we can see that there are so many NGOs who do more than we could do; and at times our evangelization could be reduced to visiting families in our neighbourhood.  Last March during the TNPCRI Regional Assembly Tamilnadu DGP Mr Alexander mentioned in his talk that in Chennai the best school is not any of our Catholic schools (In spite of the fact that many Catholics and the poor cannot afford to enter some of our educational institutions). Could this be extended to other areas in Tamilnadu-Pondicherry? What has gone wrong with our system? Some would say: It is because we admit the Catholics, the poor, and the Dalits etc and hence the standard has gone down. First of all we have to ascertain whether we are admitting all the Catholics who come to us in our educational institutions – We know, of course, that in order to be recognized as a minority institutions we should have a minimum of 50% Catholics in our educational institutions. On the other hand we have to check out the data: A few years ago in one of our colleges it was raised that the admission policy of the management (namely, Catholics and the poor) brings down the academic excellence. Then we analyzed the semester results under three categories: Catholics, Dalits, and others. We found out that in all the three categories the arrears rate was 50%. A couple of years ago in another college the same question was raised. Again we did the same data analysis: To our pleasant surprise we found out that Catholics did much better than others. The best way to deal with such an impression or myth is an analysis of actual data – Find out how many of the poor, especially of Catholic and Dalit students do very well in studies, games and sports, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities bringing laurels to the institutions. This alone could dispel the myth that the socially and economically marginalized students would do poorly in studies. Some of them would do excellently well if we could extend some financial assistance to them and encourage them.

I would like to raise two questions here – one for reflection and the other for action:

1. Are we academics by profession or by vocation?; and
2. Assuming education is our mission, if the Government were to nationalize our educational institutions (as it happened in Sri Lanka a couple of decades ago) how would we continue with our mission of education?

This would help us to review our educational ministry from practical aspects in today’s context and would enable us to plan for the future for a better tomorrow.

Prof Victor Louis Anthuvan (Faculty of LIBA, Chennai) once raised the question during the Jesuit Alumni Meeting at Trichy. His question was: Whom have we educated so far? His observation was: We have so far educated the elite, mostly upper or middle class people. How many of the Catholics and socially downtrodden people have we educated? He would say that we have failed in general to educate and bring up the Catholics in the past. His question made me reflect much more when the bill on anti-conversion was passed in Tamilnadu assembly. Why our elite and well-placed alumni/alumnae did not stand with us and raise their voice against the bill? At least now we should be able to reflect on our past and do the needful for the future.

Today when we look around we see that knowledge is power. Information Technology is blooming on the one hand and at the same time the boomerang is that the IT people are getting health problem, especially spondilitis and eye-problem. Some of them work for 18 hours a day. India is moving up the ladder of economy mainly due to education. And we understand that education is to empower people – The difference between other educators and us religious should be that we could and we ought to empower the marginalized. We should not be overrun by the momentum of commercialization of education – For us education is our mission and our service to the society. Our preference are those who are discriminated socially, economically, and religiously. Such people should be empowered on par with others and that should be our vocation. This is our challenge as well as our opportunity. And the instrument we have for this revolution is education.

All through these years what have we achieved through our educational apostolate? We have prepared mostly administrators and academicians. We have not prepared any one who is powerful as a social worker; we have not formed a leader known for advocating religious harmony; we have not succeeded in moulding an effective and people-oriented political leader. It is the right time to think of our target group among the people and do the needful. A couple of weeks ago one of my Jesuit companions narrated an event: In a village one of the coolies went to his landlord and showed him the mark-sheet of his son who has got good grades in his 10^th Standard. The employee requested financial help, loan, for further studies but to his surprise the landlord tore off the mark-sheet and told him that his son need not go for further studies. There are so many boys and girls who need to be educated and to be empowered. What do we do in this regard? Are we ready to take our stand with the needy and work for them?

The Marginalized:

How do we understand the ‘marginalized’? People are pushed to the margin when their needs, beliefs, and concerns are not acknowledged or recognized. This amounts to rejection of the powerless by the powerful in the society. The outcome could be submission by the marginalized or revolt against the structure of the society to assert and obtain equality. What is today happening is, due to awareness of the rights and strengths of the marginalized, there is rightful demand everywhere. There is silently brewing a revolution, including violence, for the equality and dignity of the poor and the marginalized and the discriminated. It is up to us to meet this situation in a spirit of dialogue and understanding and to do the needful to empower the marginalized. The most effective means is education. Education of women is very important as they are most marginalized in the society.

We need to take care of the poor. About 790 million people in the developing world are chronically undernourished, almost two-third of them reside in Asia and the Pacific. Among 2.2 billion children in the world, one billion live in poverty – that is every second child is poor. And about 30,000 children die of hunger every day. All that we need to feed, educate and care for all the children in the developing world is just 10 billion US dollars (Bill Clinton) – And 1200 billion dollars are spent on war every year. While 40% of world’s poor children live in India, 320 million Indian people live in poverty, the biggest number in the world. Do we accommodate some of them in our educational institutions? Many of them, given a chance, would become genius.

Catholic poor Dalits are triply discriminated – They are socially discriminated; politically they are not able to get the benefits of the Government; and even in the Church or religious life they experience negligence. Perhaps the only and the effective way is to impart education to the Catholic poor Dalit children on a preferential basis and thus to empower them for their better future.

Education for the marginalized is also an issue of justice. While it is everyone’s birth right to be educated, the marginalized need much more attention and help to get educated. Hence educating the marginalized should be our dream to be pursued with heart and mind in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and barriers. Social justice is as important and vital as quality of education – Only when we establish social equality, could we talk about IQ-merit-based education. Till then the marginalized are the merit-based people for us.

What needs to be done:

If we go back to our original/initial idea/reason for beginning our educational institutions we would see that the founders had the vision of imparting education in a Catholic atmosphere which implies that the primary focus was the Catholics. We are happy that we were the pioneers in education. The first university education in India was initiated through St Joseph’s College (now in Trichy) in 1844. Now we have to see what needs to be done further within our system of education we are right now imparting.

1. Value-based Education: Education might have begun as information-imparting. But today is the age of information-explosion. Even children are able to gather information on-line and if our education caters only to information, then we need not run our schools and colleges, for satellite based education is more and more available today. We have to go beyond information – There we have two obligations:
2. Formation of the individuals; and
3. Transformation of the Society through the moulded individuals.

Character formation should be our education, not mere academic excellence. We need to form our students men and women for others. We need to mould them as future leaders of the society/nation – Not leaders of authority but leaders of service. We need to bring them up as men and women who would not be silent spectators of injustice and inequality and discrimination in the society but who would be sensitive to the needy and who would be the voice of the voiceless. They would be people with insight in order to transform the society – weeding out all evil, in whatever form it exists, and to make the society better to live in. They should become aware of the inequalities in the society and they should, hence, work for human dignity and they should be convinced of human rights. To this goal we should do our best for the value-education and human-rights education. The human-rights education has been going on in our schools but it needs encouragement and support from the Heads of the Institutions. Very often we hear that this is not much encouraged though the students are very much interested. We could do wonders through human-rights education. Students have taken up issues to respective authorities and they have done the needful for the needy. A few years ago when a child was molested, a few hundred children came together and organized procession and public dharna and they met the district collector and represented the matter and saw to it that justice was done. In another school when the city bus did not stop for the children, they could organize an effective road-roko. Such social awareness instilled in the children would work out effectively for the social transformation.

As Catholic institutions we have the obligation to teach Catechism to our students. At times it looks as though we are not opposed to this but we do not take active part in it either. It would be very desirable, perhaps mandatory, that all the Religious in the Community including the Head of the Institution and of the Religious Community should teach Catechism to the children. This also has a witness value – Very often we ask the lay-collaborators, at times very newly appointed teachers in consolidated pay, to teach Catechism.

1. Skill-based Education: It is said that the problem in India is not unemployment but unemployability. Recently it was in the papers that only about 25% of our engineering students are employable. Today’s trend is ‘employable education’. A few days ago the Vice-Chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University mentioned in his talk that a teacher could teach in any manner but it should get the student a job. Even in our schools and colleges we could give opportunity to skill-based education in addition to the existing education. Two-wheeler mechanism, for example, could be tried in some schools. Even the bright students perform poorly in interviews – We could coach them in spoken English and teach them techniques of interviews. Today these are done in some private coaching centres. We could very well do it in our own educational institutions, for example after the regular class hours or in the evenings.

1. Non-formal Education: Today we begin to identify students who are ‘other-wise talented’. These students may not like academic studies but they would be much interested in job-oriented training such as hotel-management, catering, plumbing etc. These students might become school drop-outs if we very much expect or insist on academic excellence. We need to think of non-formal education such as Community Colleges. Some of the Congregations have begun Community Colleges – We need now to increase the infra-structures and to found more such institutions. We could also, through such structures, enter upon MoU’s (Memorandum of Understanding) with industrial partners – This would pave the way to accommodate the school drop-outs as well as very poor students to come up in life. In some of these institutions many of the students in training as carpenters and electricians could earn while learning.

1. Remedial Programme: In our educational institutions not all students would be bright. There are some students who are slow-in-learning. These are the students, as Thoreau would say, who would like to march to the beat of a different drum. We need to address them. Some need remedial programme in teaching and some need counseling. Taking interest in the slow-learners and conducting extra classes for them would very much help them pick up momentum in studies. Instead of investing in English medium schools if we could have special classes for all in written and spoken English in vernacular medium, it would be very effective and beneficial for the students especially the poor. Today very many students are much affected by what happens at home. Due to misunderstanding between parents, broken-families etc students are very much psychologically affected and mentally tortured. They need guidance and orientation. Students especially in the final year of the school need much guidance and counseling – not only for their future but also for their emotional growth. We should make it mandatory that in every school and college there should be a full-time student-counsellor. Even a retired teacher would be able to handle the problems of students. Counselling is very essential – Recently it was in the papers that an eight-year old child committed suicide. And today experts say that even children undergo sometimes depression. We should do something tangible in this area. We should make them feel accepted, recognized, and appreciated.

It is very important to make the students feel that each one is important to the society and that each one could contribute for the betterment of the society. The students, especially who are less talented or slow in learning, should be helped to grow in self-esteem and self-confidence. They should be also brought up to develop positive attitude towards others so that they could build up team spirit. If they grow up in an atmosphere of acceptance and appreciation they would be leaders but if they experience negligence and discrimination they might turn into rebels and anti-social elements. Each growing child is fragile and hence each child should be handled very carefully.

1. Financial Assistance: A few years ago when the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Committee) visited one of our colleges they were impressed by our ‘option for the poor’. One of the members asked the management what is being done in this regard. The answer that we admit the poor students who come to us did not satisfy the member – He said since you have the option you should be able to go out into the villages and recruit students for your institution – Then the ‘option’ would be meaningful. It would be ideal if we could go out searching for the poor students, especially in our neighbourhood. And we could very well financially assist the poor students who come to us. Some of them are not able to join our educational institutions, especially colleges, due to the fee-structures. We need to help out the needy. We should ear-mark at least 10 to 20% of the annual income of the institution for the financial assistance of the students. Students from rural areas and very poor students need our attention and follow-up very much. If we could identify, among the poor students, some with leadership qualities and form them, they would become national assets for the social transformation. Money spent on the poor would never go a waste – We would have the satisfaction that we have made the mission of Jesus, who went after the poor and the marginalized, effective and meaningful.

1. Staff Empowerment: In education the teachers play a major and an effective role since they are the ‘architects’ of the future as they mould the individuals in our educational institutions. When someone asked Michael Angelo how he brought out the beautiful statue of Moses from a rock that was abandoned on the street, he calmly replied: I just chiseled away the unwanted pieces of stones and there Moses was liberated from the rock. The teachers, as role models, influence the students and they should be effective in the holistic formation of the students with sharper thinking, sensible feeling, and exemplary behaviour. They are the formators who collaborate with us in the formation of the students. And they should be well-equipped for their profession: They should be given opportunity and encouragement to update themselves intellectually; they should be able to get decent pay for their noble profession; and they should be able to share responsibility even administratively. In short they should be able to have a say in our forming the students for the future society – Our educational ministry should be collaborative in this sense. Only then we would be able to do our best for the good of the students and for the betterment of the society. Otherwise we would just keep up the status quo for many years to come.

Challenges of the Hour:

In the light of the present scenario we need to address as effectively as possible certain things which would have greater and lasting impact in the society for the future.

1. Vision Statement: We need to make ourselves clear what our vision of education would be and should be – It is essential to formulate the corporate policy for our education for the needy and the marginalized. Depending on our target people we might even take hard decisions as the Jesuits as well as the Madhavaram St Anne’s Congregation did, namely, to do away with English mediums in our schools.

Our Vision statement should focus on the marginalized. In the Bible we see Yahweh as well as Jesus opting for the marginalized. Yahweh, again and again, says that he would stand by the orphans, the widows, and the foreigners (that is refugees). And Jesus goes around looking for the socially and religiously outcast people. As disciples of Jesus we have to imitate the Master. Hence we should give preference to the economically poor, the socially outcast, and the religiously discriminated. At this point it is good to review the resolution that the TNPCRI, in the presence of the Bishops of Tamilnadu, took two years ago during the TNPCRI Regional Assembly at Nochiodaipatty regarding admissions and appointments in our educational institutions. We should once again strengthen affirmative action for the marginalized. This would enable us to empower the downtrodden and the neglected in the society.

In our vision we should also include the neighbourhood ministry. Very often we have got land from the local people and many of the institutions were founded for the benefit of the locals. We have to ask ourselves now whether we are happy with our neighbours and whether the people in our neighbourhood are proud of our presence and of our institution and of our mission. If not, we need an examination of conscience and to rethink of our mission in the present outfit. It is important to work out an action plan for the education of the children in the neighbourhood especially in villages.

1. Innovative Teaching: We should go beyond doing justice to the framed syllabi. Instead of mere chalk and talk method we should be able to make our students think critically and ask relevant questions. Because Sir C.V.Raman asked the question, ‘Why does the sea look blue’, he made to the Nobel Prize. Because Albert Einstein asked the question ‘What would be the speed of a person who sits on a traveling light-ray’ he discovered the Theory of Relativity. We are also aware that our students are very much influenced by the media – Students who listen to the teacher so many times do not remember what is taught in the class but they listen once or twice to film tune or song and they are able to remember and repeat and even dance to the tune as in the film. Evaluation of our present teaching methodology and adopting effective techniques in future should be considered.

Collaboration with other premier educational institutions, laboratories, and industries would open the mind of the students to ever expanding reality. Financially this would pave the way to extend assistance to the needy and to give opportunities to students to see for themselves the real world and they would be inspired to aspire for greater heights in education. Contact and interaction with the alumni/alumnae also would encourage the students to broaden their horizon of dreams for their future. The alumni/alumnae could help the students continue with their education even after the school years and then they could help them find employment.

At present children are coming to the school. We could think of taking the school to the children. These are the mobile schools – It is very effective in Mumbai for example. When parents are at work, construction or harvest etc, they keep moving and their children are whiling away their time idly. The mobile schools are there to teach them to read and write and also some skill-based training is given. We could think of collecting the children, for example in poor slums who cannot afford to go to a school, and have evening study centre. Conducting night-study centres in every village would be very much appreciated. Children of the migrant workers could be very much helped. Even making our school buildings available in the evenings for the neighbourhood children to study would be very much appreciated by our neighbours. If we could also make available one or two who could teach or coach the children, it would be wonderful.

1. Holistic Formation: Our students should grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually. In our educational institutions and through effective formation of our students we should form them as light of the world and salt of the world. Through physical birth the child begins to realize the need to survive in the society; through understanding oneself the individual gives birth to oneself; through feeling for others one realizes the need of others; and through becoming the other one becomes the salt of the world and the light of the world. And it is for this mission we have been called, namely to form our students. Only then we could help Sidhartha become Budha; we could make Varthaman become Mahavir; and we could effect Jesus becoming Christ for the world today.

Whither to go:

Author Thich Nhat Hanh in his book ‘Creating True Peace’ narrates an incident: One day a swan shot by an arrow falls at the feet of Sidhartha – There comes running after the bird Devadutt claiming the bird since he shot it. But Sidhartha who saved the bird claims it as his own. Now who does the bird belong to: To the one who wanted to kill it or the one who has saved it? For effective social transformation, we need to form our students who would take the society to newer heights. Each student who comes to us is a gift of God who needs to be carefully and tenderly taken care of. If we do not form compassionate people in the society, we may not be able to prevent destructive forces.

As part of our education we should help our students develop the habit of reading especially good books. They should be able to critically reflect on matter and social issues before taking any decision without being influenced by impression or any other powers. And they should be able to express their mind clearly without any fear. Only then we could form leaders who dare to be different and who could take a stand for a cause without giving in to any external pressure. One should be able to follow one’s conscience in the process of decision making after considering the pros and cons objectively. And they should be pro-activists in establishing a society of justice and equality where each one is respected with dignity.

Our students should be the sparks of fire to set the world aflame to destroy and weed out social and religious tension and disharmony. They should not be lambs docile and conditioned and succumbed to social evils but they should be rebels who could think for themselves and who are brave enough to fight against social inequality and oppression. They should be there where people are in need and are lacking basic necessities in life. They should have been there, of course inspired by us, when tsunami ravaged the people and when recent floods due to incessant and torrential rain devastated the people. We are, of course, aware that the recent floods did more havoc than tsunami – But how many of us were out there for neighbourhood ministry?

Our students should be agents of social change especially in rooting out discrimination and exploitation. They should be people who dare to be different transcending bondage of fear and servitude and transcending the boundaries of caste, creed, and race. Our education should have new understanding. V. Iraianbu in his book ‘Vazhkaiye Oru Vazhipadu’ (Life itself is Worship) enumerates the steps of understanding:

1. appearance – physical, superficial, periphery
2. name – identical to an individual

• discrimination/differentiation – comparison

1. perception – evolution of personal concept based on one’s experience
2. reality – ultimate transcendence of steps i. to iv.

The goal of education is enlightenment. Budha told his disciples: Be a lamp unto yourself. Thus our education should be a process of evolution from personal formation to social transformation. Hence we need a new understanding of education as our mission today. For us education should not be a survival kit but a mission of salvation.

Conclusion:

We need to ask ourselves the following questions with regard to social transformation through forming our students:

1. What have we done so far for social, religious, and political transformation?
2. What are we doing to realize this goal of education now?

• What ought we to do for a meaningful and relevant educational evolution for social change?

The solution would become meaningful and relevant if we have in our focus the marginalized. If we are convinced of affirmative action for the marginalized in our educational institutions, we would become pioneers of education once again. Otherwise we could quietly quit our educational institutions losing our mission to those who are already commercializing education. They would make the rich richer and the poor poorer. If that happens our mission of education would have neither meaning nor relevance at all.

Inaugural address delivered for the Tamilnadu-Pondicherry CRI Regional Assembly (March 29^th 06) at Madurai.

Cf In Christo 44 (3) 2006 pp.202-212 and Caritas 91 (2) 2006 pp.52-63.