TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, July 21, 2001: Archbishop Edward Gilbert, head of the Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago, recently observed that only 30 per cent of the students at Presentation College, Chaguanas are Roman Catholics. He also expressed his intention to give special attention to Roman Catholic education in Catholic schools. Although Presentation College, Chaguanas, is a Catholic College, by the Concordat signed between the Catholic Church and the Eric Williams administration, they sold the majority of enrollment places to the state in exchange for certain financial support. The Concordat also effectively prevented Hindus, who make up the second largest proportion of the population after the Roman Catholics, and other religious groups from building and operating new colleges with state assistance. The implications of this is that Hindus were never permitted to build schools to accommodate the aspirations and expectations of its Hindu community. The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha endorses the Archbishop’s concern about Catholic education in its schools, but more urgently Hindus are concerned about the reality that the majority of children in some Catholics schools are Hindu children. The issue is being faced by the Catholics worldwide as in many countries, the majority of the students in their schools are not Catholics.
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