MUMBAI, February 4: Just 24 hours after Chief Minister Manohar Joshi met with school representatives to iron out differences over the implementation of the Pre-Primary Act, Catholic institutions have categorically said their opposition to certain conditions of the Act stands and that there was no question of going ahead with pre-primary admissions which have already been delayed by several months.``How can some schools speak on behalf of the rest?'' questioned Father Denis Pereira, secretary to the Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE), Mumbai. At a meeting with heads of ten schools convened yesterday, the Chief Minister had emphasised his commitment to the implementation of the Act and had insisted that admissions would be held. The meeting, which was also attended by principals of three Catholic schools, had reached a consensus on banning of interviews and the neighbourhood policy.
But Fr Pereira today told Express Newsline that the three principals, Fr R Braganza from St Anne's, Malad; FrEdward D'Souza from Don Bosco, Matunga and Sr Yvonne D'Souza from Mary Immaculate, Borivli had submitted a letter to the CM prior to the meeting in which they had stated that they were attending the meeting at the request of the Department of Education in their personal capacity and not as heads of their institutions.
The letter further mentioned that the principals had little to add in the light of their total endorsement of the memorandum dated December 29 sent by Archbishop Ivan Dias of Mumbai on behalf of the Catholic bishops ofMaharashtra.
The Archbishop's memorandum objected to the basic tenets of the Act as it sought to ``dictate the manner of selection, giving little regard to minority rights as enshrined in the Constitution of India and upheld by Supreme Court on various occasions.''
Fr Pereira maintained that last month the Archbishop had written a letter expressing his desire to meet the CM. While both, the December memorandum and the January letter, were addressed to CM, none of them havebeen acknowledged, he said. ``Two of our schools have already filed a case before the Bombay High Court on which a bench has yesterday given notices before admission to the respondent state government,'' he added.
But, Principal M P Sharma from G D Somani High School which is also a prominent member of Unaided School Forum and which, after yesterday's meeting, has decided to go-ahead with the admission process inspite of reservations, pointed out, ``At an earlier meeting with BMC education officer J M Abhyankar in January the members (who met the CM) had volunteered their services. These included some principals of Christian schools also. They even participated in a meeting where we ironed out our differences. And one thinks that we were all there to discuss the Pre-Primary Act.''
As of now, the stand-off continues and with as many as 187 schools affiliated to the ABE it seems admissions are a long way off.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
