THE NAINITAL STATEMENT OF CHURCH OF NORTH INDIA ON VISION FOR EDUCATION   

We, the bishops, synod officers and stakeholders of education from the various dioceses of the Church of North India, come together in All Saints’ College, Nainital from 23^rd to 25^th  May, 2008, to review the Church’s mission in education in the light of the biblical mandate to educate, propose as follows to be considered and adopted by the Church:  

We are concerned that the Church-related educational institutions, especially, institutions of higher education, face a deep crisis on account of the non-availability of teachers and administrators in education today. We see this as symptoms of the educational under-development of our community, which calls for urgent remedial measures.  

We regret that despite our extensive involvement in the field of education, far in excess of our numerical and economic strengths, we have not been able to impact our society with biblical values and ideals to the extent we could have.  

We are anxious that the distinctive features of our mission to educate stand at risk of being eroded in the wake of the secularisation and commercialisation of education everywhere at the present time. The pressure to conform to the prevailing patterns needs to be counterbalanced by the biblical call to be renewed and transformed into partners in mission with Jesus in the domain of education.  

We remain convinced that, despite the decrease in the Christian pre-eminence in education, the relevance of Christian education in the Indian context continues to increase.  

We are proud and profoundly appreciative of the devoted and distinguished services that our laity render to the society, often under trying circumstances, through our educational institutions. 

We plead, in light of the above, that there is an urgent need to evolve a policy and programme of action to renew the mission-orientation and Church-relatedness of our educational institutions. Setting ‘captives free’ and promoting ‘fullness of life’ for all are the mission goals of Christian education. This calls for a commitment to social transformation and personal empowerment. Re-appropriating the vision and mission that underlie the founding of our institutions is today a contextual imperative. 

Such being the case, we submit that: 

§    The Christian character of our educational institutions and the value-based quality education they impart aimed at developing the total person constitute our unique role and distinctive identity in the field of education. This needs to be safeguarded and enriched at all costs.  

§    Renewing and revitalizing the partnership between the Church and our educational institutions is basic to evangelizing the Indian society effectively. The failure to evangelize through education results in the commercialisation of education, which defeats the very purpose of our mission to educate and makes us party to the degradation of the society into an enclave of victims.   

§    Given the variety of traditions that comprise the Church of North India , the geographic dispersion of our educational institutions and the pressures under which they work, it is necessary to evolve a CNI -Policy of Education (CNI-PoE) that contextualizes the biblical vision for education and engages the challenges and opportunities of our times. Where there is no vision, the Bible warns us, people and nations perish.  

§    Our institutions face manifold problems and are vulnerable to bureaucratic harassment and demoralization. There is a need, hence, to create an effective instrument at the synodical level to protect the minority rights of our institutions, to lobby and litigate in this regard and to facilitate our institutions in all areas of their need.  

We therefore propose that the Church of North India should:  

• Develop a policy on education (PoE) that contextualizes the biblical vision for education 

• Abolish SBSE&TT and SBHE and create an effective instrument at the Synod Level to protect the rights of our institutions 

• Evolve a strategy for ensuring that CNI Educational Institutions play an effective role in facilitating the educational development of the Christian Community and, in particular, of the members of the Church of North India. 

• Reorient our teachers and heads of institutions towards the essential goals, features and emphases in Christian Education and cater to their spiritual nurture and renewal. There is a need to conduct regular Refresher, Self Renewal Courses for our teachers in schools and colleges. 

• Develop a ten-year perspective plan to face the acute personnel and Leadership crisis that afflict our institutions and imperil their identity as Christian minority educational institutions.  

• Resource our laity in education by producing and making available to them appropriate Biblical literatures, prayers, Bible Studies, Short Messages as well as a suitable syllabus and text books for value education.  

Recognizing the importance of regular monitoring and review of progress to ensure faithfulness to goals and accountability in respect of results, we propose that the Nainital Commitment be brought to the attention of CNI SYNOD through the Synod Executive Committee and a mandate obtained for operationalizing this document.  

We pledge to work towards the implementation of this Commitment.  

Sd/-

All the Participants of Nainital Consultation