Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan bemoaned people’s willingness to donate for religious causes, but not to support much-needed education in the state.

Calling attention to Malayali’s generosity towards religious establishments, he urged people to donate to educational institutions as generously.

If a 2012 news report is to be believed, four devaswom boards in Kerala together earn a whopping Rs 1000 crore annually. By comparison, the 2016 revised budget in July allocated Rs 1,000 crore to setup 1,000 schools with international standards in the state.

Pinarayi was speaking at the Teachers’ Day celebrations at Attakkulanagara Government Central High School in Thiruvananthapuram.

“If you look at our society’s general set up, you’d see that people spend huge sums of money on various religious institutions. But if they also make at least a one-time contribution to the Saraswati temples (educational institutions) they studied in, that would make a lot of difference,” Pinarayi said.

Wishing people on his official Facebook page, Pinarayi also cautioned about the dangers of alcoholism, smoking and drug abuse.

“Teachers must be able to teach the children that they need to be careful not to fall prey to such evils and instead be useful to the society,” he wrote.