CLERIC CANVASSES FREE EDUCATION FOR MISSION SCHOOLS

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA
OWERRI-The Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Dr. Anthony J.V. Obinna, has appealed to Imo State government to extend the benefits of free education to children in mission schools to minimize or eliminate the fees paid by parents in such institutions.

Dr. Obinna made the appeal in his address to the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council meeting held in the Pastoral Centre, Owerri.

'While we appreciate this offer of free education, which eliminates school fees for parents, we expect that the benefits of free education should apply also in the church-run schools, so as to minimize, if not eliminate the school fees paid by parents in our own schools,' Obinna pleaded.

He affirmed that the failure to apply this gesture to mission schools had already generated problems and tension in some of  the communities in all the dioceses in the state.

'We are hoping that the challenge thrown up by the free education offer will be equitably resolved for the overall good of our state,' Obinna said.

The fiery Archbishop reasoned that communities, who want government to retake Catholic schools or push out the church from education in the name of free education, should desist from such behavior.

'They should rather cooperate as we seek to get the benefit of free education extended to their children in our Catholic schools,' Obinna said.