Bishops from various churches met NSS leaders in the latter’s headquarters in Changanasseri and agreed to form a joint platform to fight the proposed amendments to KER.
KOCHI: After a slew of unsuccessful pastoral letters exhorting the flock to rise up against the Left Democratic Front government, the churches in Kerala have sided with the equally powerful communal group, the Nair Service Society (NSS). Bishops from various churches met NSS leaders in the latter’s headquarters in Changanasseri and agreed to form a joint platform to fight the proposed amendments to Kerala Education Rules (KER).
If the previous crusades were sparked off by the LDF government’s aborted attempts to regulate self-financing professional colleges and the now-forgotten debate over the faith of a communist, the present move is against the move to curtail private school managements’ power to appoint teachers at will. KER panel had hinted at appointing teachers at the government-aided schools through public service commission.
A joint statement issued by the socio-religious leaders said: “The government should not forget the fact that religious and social organisations had taken it as their responsibility to set up schools and other educational institutions in different parts of the state as it found that the government alone was unable to meet the state’s educational requirements.”
The meeting protested the government’s move to “usurp” the powers of aided school managements in appointing and administering educational institutions. It said the move to hand over the administration of schools, including government-aided schools, to local civic bodies was politically motivated.
“Whenever our education policy had gone wayward, NSS had intervened. We have taken initiative for such a mobilisation since NSS was the largest corporate management in the state,” NSS general secretary PK Narayana Panicker said. He was joined by bishops representing various Christian denominations.
Though various Muslim groups have also opposed the proposed reforms in education, another dominant socio-religious organisation Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam has supported it.
The marriage of convenience tries to evoke memories of the infamous ‘Liberation Struggle’ of 1959, when the communal forces joined hands to topple the first communist government in Kerala. The proposal by first education minister Joseph Mundasseri to appoint teachers directly through the PSC was a major irritant for the spiritual corporates.
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