Catholic education today

Editorial by Michail Rassool

Our special Catholic education issue has become an annual event in which Catholic schools showcase themselves, and articles survey the complexities which they face in the modern age. The emphasis is usually on topicality, and as far as possible we strive to give stakeholders in Catholic education the space to voice their concerns.

In their pastoral letter and statement on Catholic education, “All God’s Children: Care, concern, and challenge for Catholic Education”, the bishops of Southern Africa make it clear that Catholic schools should be Gospel-based, centred on Christ, and strive to be communities of care, selflessness and sharing.

Catholic schools face the same pressures as other schools do, and their learners are not immune from those facing young people generally. This is borne out in Anne Baker’s cautionary article on the importance of each Catholic school having a policy governing substance abuse problems among its learners.

Anne French of the CIE’s HIV/Aids and Gender Unit shows us that students at Catholic schools are not exempt from the pressures of an increasingly sexualised world. She writes that many girls attending Catholic schools become part of a wider statistic, which shows that more than 60000 schoolgirls fall pregnant each year.

Sexuality education, in which young people acquire knowledge, understanding and skills, and develop beliefs, attitudes and values about sexuality and relationships, is cited by CIE director Mark Potterton as essential in combating irresponsible moral choices.

He says it is also a means of mitigating the impact of HIV/Aids, of which South Africa has one of the highest prevalence rates in the world.

It is not our intention to gloss over such thorny topics, which all schools face, but to try to form as realistic a picture of Catholic education as possible, based on research and informed perspectives.

We acclaim the importance of the ethos at Catholic schools, which the bishops say is to help everyone who benefits from the learning they provide (and Catholic school learners come from diverse backgrounds) to grow in faith and to integrate faith and experience.

One article that has particular relevance in this context is Neil Mitchell’s reflection on school sports. He lambasts a national and global culture of obsessiveness over sports and sports stars, who garner tens of billions in endorsements and consumer spending.

“There are some developments in modern sport that are arguably unhealthy from a Catholic point of view, because they reek of excess and threaten the positive effects of sport,” Mr Mitchell notes. Sport, he writes, was useful for channelling youthful energy and for shaping character and stiffening the upper lip — perhaps more of a means to an end than an end it itself.

He suggests the “winning is the be-all and the end-all” ethos of modern sports has no real place in Catholic schools, but that sports should promote conviviality and camaraderie.

The bishops say religious education programmes at Catholic schools set them apart from other schools, and this is why CIE Religious Education coordinator Paul Faller in his article calls for the professionalisation of Religious Education and for Religious Educators to commit themselves to being the best for their learners’ benefit.

Everyone with a stake in Catholic education — parents, educators, education policy-makers, researchers, and indeed all the faithful — should be pleased with the diversity of challenges which Catholic education experts are confronting, as this year’s supplement shows.