Lashing out at private self-financing college managements, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that even Christian managements which had once strived for social service have become part of the education business lobby in the State.

Inaugurating the diamond jubilee celebrations of St. Joseph's College, Devagiri, here on Tuesday, Mr. Vijayan complained that most of the self-financing colleges, except a few under Christian management, had turned educational institutions into commercial ventures.

He said that Christian missionaries had set up educational institutions in the State with the objective of social service. “However, the onset of self-financing institutions resulted in education becoming a crass profit-making mission," he remarked. “Initially the Christian managements declined to commercialise the education sector. But now they too have become part of this trend and only a few are out of its influence,” he said.

Mr. Vijayan pointed out the illegal and unscrupulous methods adopted by managements, including taking bribes, while hiring teachers for the private self- financing sector. “This is nothing but corruption and looting,” he said.

“Nowadays the managements resort to auctioning of teachers’ posts instead of the earlier practice of taking only token donations,” Mr. Vijayan said.

The Chief Minister said that Christian corporate managements had previously refrained from collecting donations from teachers and merit was the main criterion.

The situation seemed to have changed with the changing times, he said.

Directive to Vigilance

He said the State government had issued directives to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to initiate a probe into the malpractices prevalent in the self- financing sector. Unfortunately none raised any complaints. “The government cannot agree to the aided educational institutions turning into profit-making enterprises. The Vigilance has been asked to bring them before the law,” he added.

St. Joseph’s College, Devagiri , started in 1956, is the first college in the country to get an A++ grade under the newly adopted National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) assessment system for higher education institutions.

College Principal Sibichen M. Thomas; Fr. Joseph Vayalil, CMI; M.K. Raghavan, MP; and M.K. Muneer, MLA were present.