Events

Backward sections benefit from Catholic Education
in India

Contrary to the popular perception that most of the schools are only catering to the rich, the nationwide survey conducted by the CBCI Commission for Education and Culture reveals that only 6.9 percent of the students are from the higher income group, 19 percent from the middle income group, 32.4 percent belong to the lower income group and large majority of the students 41.4 percent belong to the Below Poverty Line group.

The Catholic Church has 14,539 Catholic educational institutions, of which 448 are colleges. Contrary to the perception that most of the schools are in the urban areas, 8,621 (59.3 percent) of the schools are in the rural areas and only 5,918 (40.3 percent) of schools are in the urban areas.

The Church is the biggest NGO with 13,004 KG-Higher Secondary schools, 243 specialized schools, 448 colleges, 534 formal technical institutes and 310 non-formal educational institutions. Of the 7 million students studying in the Catholic institutions, 54 per cent are girls and 46 per cent are boys.

Caste wise 25 per cent are from SC/ST origin, 31 percent from BC origin, 11 percent from OBC origin and others are 33 percent. The percentage of Catholic students is only 22.7 percent, other Christians 5.6 percent, while that of Hindus is 53 per cent, Muslims 8.6 percent and others 10.1 percent.

Diocesan authorities run 45.1 percent of the school and the religious congregations run 54.9 percent of the Catholic schools. While 71.1 percent of the diocesan schools are in the rural areas and 28.9 percent of them are in urban areas. Interestingly, of the 7,983 schools run by the religious congregations, 50.4 percent are in urban areas and 49.6 percent are in rural areas. The first Catholic school in India was started by St Francis Xavier in 1541 in Goa.