Schools run by Christian missionaries are distributing letters of appeal, along with the annual report cards, urging students and their parents to join the April 4 rally to protest the School Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2006.

More than 100 reputed English-medium schools run by the missionaries will remain closed on April 4 to protest the passage of the bill.

The general appeal put out by most missionary-run schools reads: ?You (guardians) prefer to put your children in institutions run by the churches as you find some special characteristics which help in the holistic development of every child. If the church-run schools are debarred from appointing their teachers and principals, it will not be possible for them to retain their character? We, therefore, request you to stand by our cause and participate in the rally along with your ward.?

The bill makes it mandatory for state-aided minority institutions to recruit teachers, including principals or headmasters, through the school service commission. The institutions see this piece of legislation as an instrument of government interference.

?The schools cannot maintain their standards if the Fathers/Sisters/Brothers do not have the privilege to appoint staff members who will accept the ideology of the institutions,? Father Joseph Pathickal, principal, Don Bosco, Liluah, said in a letter to the parents of his students.

The Anglo-Indian schools ? despite school education minister Kanti Biswas?s assurance that they would not come within the bill?s purview ? have joined ranks with the agitating schools as a mark of solidarity.

To ensure that the rally at the Mayo Road Gandhi statue is a success, the churches have urged schools in Calcutta, Howrah and North and South 24-Parganas to bring at least two busloads of people each.

Father Faustine Brank, a Roman Catholic church priest and president of the education cell of the Bangiya Christiya Pariseba, described the bill as a ?breach of agreement?.

A series of dialogues in 1974 had resulted in the formulation of special rules that empower church-run state-aided schools to recruit teachers on their own. The rules stipulated that the Church would have to be taken into confidence if there were any amendments.

?Unfortunately, the government did not consult us before passing the bill,? rued Father Brank.