New Zealand's Ministry of Education scrutinises a Sai school's underhand method for getting government funding
by Robert Priddy
From New Zealand comes another proof of the underhanded deception of the Sai movement, in this case in in trying to get 'Sai education' accepted officially (see below). This shows that the policy launched privately within the Sathya Sai Organisation about 2 years ago to establish Sai schools by setting up trust and schools independently of itself is still running. In Europe a new branch called Sai Educare was to stand for the schools, playing down the by now besmirched Sathya Sai Baba name.
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School's
funding under scrutiny - April 14th 2003
An arrangement between a Tokoroa school and a school in Murupara is raising concerns among officials at the Ministry of Education. Tokoroa's Arorangi school is under scrutiny over a method it uses to get government funding. The private school does not charge fees so it is trying to get state help by enrolling its pupils at a Maori immersion school in Murupara, 100 kilometres away. Arorangi's founder John Stevens says he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bankrolling the school, whose principles are based on the teachings of Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, hoping it would eventually be integrated into the state education system. But, with only 47 pupils enrolled, the school could not be accepted into the education system. Stevens found a solution by enrolling his pupils with the Murupara school and any taxpayer funding would be passed on. Stevens says the children are enrolled in the head or host school and the funding is directed through. This arrangement has upset teachers in Tokoroa where three primary schools have closed because of falling rolls. Education Minister Trevor Mallard says he is surprised by the arrangement and the ministry will be investigating the situation. The Education Ministry will meet the Maori immersion school in Murupara on Tuesday to discuss its role in helping this school stay open. http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,183017-1-7,00.html
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Further comments by RP:- The 'Sai' could doubtless not be dropped from Sai Educare, we note, doubtless because of Sai Baba's many portentous pronouncements of the absolute importance of His Name for the success of any such projects. However, the Sai name itself led to the demise of the Sai Educare High School in Copenhagen, after they had signed a contract to buy a famous castle as the school premises. The mayor of the district was not told that it was a Sai Baba undertaking, but he found this out by seeing a picture of Sai Baba on the back of a book shown him at the end of the meeting where he was first approached about the sale of Arresødal Castle. The inhabitants of the area protested so vehemently that the leaders of the Sai project had to withdraw and break the sales contract. The explanation given internally in the movement was that (the omniscient) Sai Baba did not after all think the time was ripe!! This same ground was given later last year when the Netherlands' educational authorities turned down a Sai education project for which support had been applied.
One may ask why the Sathya Sai Organisation has to use such methods? Evidently, "Swami's power" is not enough, nor is "His Name" and advantage, on the contrary. The tininess of interest in the "educare service" the SSO tries to provide with voluntary labour is so ineffectual that it can attract only a handful of students anywhere. In Copenhagen about 10 years ago, the leader of the so-called 'ESSE Institute (for SB's human values)', Thorbjørn Meyer and his subordinates, tried to interest the local community in free weekend Education in Human Values for their children. Many hundreds of flyleaf invitations to parents to attend a free talk about this were delivered, but NOT ONE family turned up!