The members of the Forum arrived at the venue in the early morning of the day. It was our Provincialate at Nagamangalam that the meeting was held and we started the day’s program with prayers of Adoration and thanksgiving after the breakfast at 9 a.m. Rev. Fr. C. Sebastin Raj the Admonitor and Councilor in charge of Education Forum led the prayer service in which good number of the Forum Members participated. Rev. Fr. Amirtha Rajan the Secretary of Education Forum welcomed Very. Rev. Fr. A. Dharmaraj -The Provincial of South East India Province, all the participants and especially the new comers to the Education and Stewardship Forums and after which a silent homage was paid by praying for the departed souls of our confreres of our Province more especially for late Rev. Fr. Dominic Savio who was a member of the Education Forum. The Key-note address and Orientation thoughts were given by Fr. C .Sebastin Raj and the actual discussions began thereafter based on the selected points given to the present members concerning our SFS Schools in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The important points that were discussed:
- New Initiatives and Creativity
- Review on Centralized Text- Books/Distributor (Dealer)
- Minority Status
- Critique-New Education Policy of Indian Government
- Conferrers: Role and Responsibility
- Tri-dimensional Relationship
- Language: Significance and Expectation
- Local Challenges
Rev. Fr. Nicholas the Bursar of our Province welcomed Very. Rev. Fr. A. Dharmaraj-Provincial of SEIP and all the Participants
Few Highlights of the discussions in the Stewardship Forum are as follows:
- Original Land Documents are to be submitted in the province and the same is to be registered in the local Punchayat
- Pan-Card number is to be registered in the Bank
- If School and Parish communities are attached then only for maintenance and stay of the working conferrers in the institute money can be spent from the school
- If the expense exceeds Rs.20, 000 then the permission is to be sought from the provincial and a third signatory is also insisted upon.
At the end Very .Rev. Fr. A. Dharma Raj congratulated all our confreres who worked hard to produce good results in the last academic year 2015-16 especially for the 10th and 12th standard He also thanked the participants (especially Correspondents, Principals, Procurators, and Teachers of our schools) for the commitment and tireless service towards education of the children. Rev. Fr. C. Sebastin invited the confreres to celebrate our beloved provincials Silver Jubilee of His Priestly Ordination Anniversary Day at our Provincialate. And with a short prayer the meeting came to an end by 1:30p.m and all the members had their lunch after which they dispersed to their respective ministry places.
Fr. M. Simon Prabu