Sri Lankan Archbishop Ranjith calls for more Catholic teachers
(July 21,2010) Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo has appealed to Sri Lankan President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, to recruit more Catholic teachers to teach Christianity in government
schools. Many rural schools lack even a single Catholic teacher, Archbishop Ranjith
told President Rajapaksa at a recent meeting with priests involved in the education
sector. In some schools, Catholic children study Buddhism as an alternative to Christianity,
according to some teachers in government-run schools. Fr.Ranjith Madurawala, general
manager for Catholic schools in the Colombo archdiocese, who also met the president,
said that 1,000 teachers are urgently needed to teach Christianity. Catholic students
have the same rights as other students with regard to free education and the right
to the religious studies of their choice, he said. The President promised to settle
the teacher problem as soon as possible, Fr. Madurawala confirmed. Following the
nationalization of Church-run schools in 1956, priests and nuns were forced out of
the schools, although the Church still operates 27 prestigious Catholic schools in
the archdiocese.