The wisdom of the early missionaries who conceived the school as a valuable adjunct of the Church can never be questioned. It is said of Rhenius that whenever he found the soil resistant to a church, he planted a school. The innate regard among Indians for the schoolmaster as the 'Guru' was used to good purpose; and in most cases the village school was the forerunner of the village church.

Today dotted all over the district there are 490 Primary Schools and 155 Middle Schools run by the Tirunelveli Diocese. Long before the Government paid serious attention to elementary education, there has been this network of Christian schools promoting literacy among the villagers and testifying to Christ. They have been the nucleus of the Tirunelveli Church; and most of their teachers, who are voluntary catechists in their respective congregations, are the mainstay of the rural church.