Catholic education in Europe - the Maltese perspective

"Teaching is not to be regarded as a static accomplishment like riding a bicycle or keeping a ledger; it is like all arts of high ambition, a strategy in the face of an impossible task." - Lawrence Stenhouse.

In the past two decades or so we have been experiencing quite a number of changes in education and the running of schools in Europe, as well as in Malta. Up to a few years ago the accent on the running of schools was on the managerial aspect of these institutions.

Often enough schools were regarded as industrial or commercial enterprises with the sole aim of making profits or increasing production. All efforts concentrated on the amount of work that was managed and registered.

Our objective was mainly related to the demands of a set syllabus and to the need to get it over and done with. Priority hinged round 'quantity' rather than 'quality'. What used to dominate, and to a certain extent still does, were the examinations and the craze for certificate accumulation that one strove to acquire by the end of one's secondary school.

The success of a school used to be measured by one type of yardstick - high grades and top marks - as if the only concern of a school were the 'league tables'.

There is of course, a body of knowledge, but more importantly, it is the way that that content, within the existing curriculum, is taught. We should never relinquish the 'how' of what is taught and give less weight to 'what' is being taught.

It is the formative process which is important and not the product as such. Sylvia West contends in her book, Educational Values and School Leadership:

"If pupils are to grow into their truly fulfilled selves with a meaningful sense of values, there must be an openly caring and thinking environment in the school where open-minded and honest enquiry pervades a holistic educational experience."

In this context, each individual is worthy of care and respect. The inner growth is as important as the material, the intellectual or the physical development. The individual should be made aware of his responsibilities towards society and consequently of his immediate environment.

Only such an environment fosters the idea of the individual as a potentially and fully actualised person to be respected. One of the main features of education is to foster in the young a sense of duty and commitment to the common good.

The progress and achievement that society will have attained in the future will depend on the way our young are educated and formed to stand up for the future needs. Professional culture within our educational institutions is widespread.

High standards need to be insisted on. We are experiencing a highly sophisticated society that is in continuous flux. Change is synonymous with our civilisation, and to keep abreast is the rage.

What is needed in our schools nowadays is effective leadership that is engaged wholeheartedly in building learning organisations.

According to Peter Senge, in a learning organisation leaders are designers, stewards as well as teachers. They are responsible for building organisations where people continually expand their capabilities to understand complexity, clarify vision and improve shared mental models. In other words they are responsible for all that goes on in school.

Such a model of leadership leads to another type of culture which is as important and meaningful as its counterpart - community culture. In his book Catholic Schools and the Common good, E. Bryke contends:

"Schools involve more than conveying the acquired knowledge of civilisation to students and developing in them the intellectual skills they need to create new knowledge. Education also entails forming the basic disposition for citizenship in a democratic and pluralistic society...

"If schools are to teach children how they should live in common, they themselves must be communities. Their responsibility is the formation of each student as a person-in-community."

If such statements hold for all schools as learning communities, for those with a Catholic identity it is of paramount importance. The transmission of values through commitment and dedication is not a luxury for Catholic schools. It is an essential part of their call and mission.

All Catholic schools are in duty bound to foster among their members those social and Christian values so necessary for the complete development of the human person created in the image and likeness of God. More than a task to be carried out, it is a mission to be fulfilled with all responsibility.

The mission is the obligation par excellence that Catholic schools have to embrace fully and without any compromise. It comes as no surprise, then, that all documents regarding Catholic schools issued by the Roman Catholic Church assert that it is incumbent on every member of the school community to transmit values and set the example not only through their way of life but also through their teaching profession.

Such a statement leads to the need of an awareness and at the same time a thorough formation for those entering the teaching professing and who are seriously thinking in joining the Church schools sector. The label that Church schools are better because they are more disciplined or because students perform better does not hold much water.

What ought to make Church schools different are their sense of mission, the values they endow their members with and their great sense of community. It would be wrong to lose sight of this tripartite aspect of Catholic education.

All the energy and sense of commitment which emanates from this should enhance the common good. Both Church and state are in duty bound to offer the resources, time and financial support to ensure that the rewarding experience that has been gained throughout the years benefit all our present and future students.