The Road not Taken

There is a sense of guilt as I pass by dozens of cars stopping by a prestigious convent school close to our house, to drop girls attending this school. Looking at the cars, one cannot be mistaken that most of the girls of this school come from the “top cream” of the society, and the people who manage the school are proud to educate these students, who might in future take leadership roles in the country! But I would be blatantly wrong if I were to brand only this nuns-run school and spare the schools run by our own congregation in the city! There is an unprecedented rush to admit boys into our school; and the first choice of any well-off parents, business persons, government servants, and political leaders is to seek admission in our school for boys and of counterpart Sisters’ school for girls.

Sometimes I ask myself, is this for which we have been specially called – to educate the rich and the powerful in society, who have all the money and influence to buy the best of education in the country? Where is our preferential option for the poor? I understand we console ourselves saying that we have certain per centage of the seats each year reserved for the economically backward, and certain number of seats for dalits and tribals. But can we justify running school for the most moneyed people in the city, while our special call to be prophetic voices might imply we do something else? I feel deep within, we forget our prophetic voices, or carpet them, and continue to run schools which may bring us both money and good results.

Very few religious congregations dared to close down their first class English medium schools and start vernacular language schools for the children of lower income groups, and for the socially neglected and marginalized groups. There are a hundred and one problems in running schools for the poor, especially in a metropolitan city; the students are sure to become a liability, and the school is bound to incur heavy loss and may even face bankruptcy; there will be uproar among the people who had been availing our generous service all these years; we might get miserable results, and the discipline may be at stake, and the school may become quite unmanageable! These are the fears which inhibit us from taking a positive step forward to look beyond our noses.

It is unfortunate that we do not look at the education of many neglected sectors of the society; say for instance, have we ever thought out the education of the thousands of children living on the roads and slums? The children of rickshaw pullers, the domestic workers, the manual laborers of the corporation who clean our streets, even before we wake up from sleep; the vegetable vendors, the hawkers! If we care for these neglected groups of people, who may never taste the kind of education we impart in our schools. I appreciate the efforts of the convent school closeby, which has given shelter to street children to reside on the terrace of their school, and have made them avail the English medium education to them.

It is a challenging task to close down the top schools that we are running in the heart of the city, but can we not think of opening some other schools where we would reverse the admission criteria? Here are some of the criteria that I would think would make a difference : the parents do not have a house of their own (i.e. living in a one room rented house), the parents have no job security, their combined income is below rupees 5,000 per month (needs to be verified physically), daily laborers, people who do not have an almirah to keep their clothes, and no bank accounts, who do not possess any vehicles, not even a two-wheeler, who go to work even on Sundays, who do not have any savings for future… It is a challenge, but if we cannot accept the challenge, then who will?