Disrespectful!
That is how one denominational board is describing Cabinet’s decision to set up a committee to further review and recommend changes to the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) and the Concordat and not appoint any of its members to said committee.
Raising the issue was general secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Vijay Maharaj.
In an interview with the Express, Maharaj said there is no representation from the denominational boards, the Roman Catholic board, the Presbyterian board, the ASJA board, the SDMS board or the Anglican board.
He said the SDMS is the third largest denominational school board in the country after the Catholics and the Presbyterians. “We would have thought that our input was necessary in both the SEA and the Concordat which they wish to review, so we feel we’ve been slighted and disrespected,” he said.
He added “we have been left out all together, both in the revision of the Concordat and the SEA. I am very disappointed because you have a lot of what you call ‘technocrats’, not people on the ground, university lecturers and armchair critics,” he said.
The denominational boards in this country own 340 primary schools and 44 colleges.
Maharaj said the boards will be meeting today, (Friday) to “draw up a complaint of disrespect” and raise their concerns to the Education Ministry.
He said “It is totally disrespectful not only for the Maha Sabha, but the association of denominational boards.”
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