Catholic Church Rejects School Subsidies

Barely 48 hours after this paper reported a huge disparity in the allocation of government subsidies to private schools, the Catholic Archdiocese in Liberia says it rejected US$50,000 in government subsidy to its schools.

"Yes, indeed the Catholic Church has rejected government US$50,000 annual subsidy," the most Revered Lewis Zeigler, Archbishop of Monrovia said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with this paper.

He said the Catholic Church was unhappy over the manner and form the allocation process was conducted by authorities at the Ministry of Education.

"When you are giving something, it is sometimes wise to see if that thing can be used in a comfortable way to help you do what you want to do," he said, adding:: "But if what you are giving is not really going to solve your problem, I think it is better that you just say no to it."

The Catholic Education Secretariat which runs some 64 schools in the country was reportedly allotted US$50,000 in the 2012 /2013 fiscal budget by government while 'smaller' institutions received over US$100,000 for the same period.

But Archbishop Zeigler told this paper that upon hearing the news, heads of the three archdioceses in the country held an emergency meeting where it was agreed that the funds be rejected by the Liberian Church.

"This is unacceptable,' he said. He noted that prior to the allocation of subsidies, a meeting was held with authorities at the Ministry of Education and members of the national legislature and his institution in which the church school requested US$600,000 annually. The Catholic Church currently runs over 64 schools in with over 200 professional teaching staff. There are over 27 high schools just in the capital, he said. "This tells you that our expenditure is more than US$50,000," he added. He observed that huge disparities exist in the allocation of government subsidies due to intense lobbying by top schools authorities with education ministry officials. "The Ministry of Education needs to open their eyes and go out to these various schools and see where help is needed most," he suggested.

"As it is now, only those who are lobbying are the ones that are getting the bigger share." Archbishop Zeigler, who further described government subsidies as "uncharitable", said with or without government intervention or subsidies the Catholic schools across Liberian would still operate. "They gave us US$10,000 in 2010 and we rejected it. In 2011 they said they gave us some money but we never received it," Zeigler noted

Despite the Catholic's rejection of the government subsidy, the prelate said no increment was made in tuition this academic year in Catholic schools.

"All we did was an adjustment in the registration fees and other material cost," he added.