Irreligious Education

This was a letter found in the Today newspaper of Tuesday March 30th 2010. I'm torn between being astonished & disgusted.

---

NOT REALLY CATHOLIC, AND IT'S A SHAME
------------------------------

I REFER to the recent debate over St Joseph's Institution's student intake policies.

I come from a family with many SJI and Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) alumna. Catholic schools should remember their roots as schools built by Catholic missionaries; such Catholic schools should not turn away from their roots for the sake of staying competitive.

Many of these schools are now being headed by non-Catholic principals, who may not see the importance in keeping the schools "missionary". Gone are the days where these mission schools were led by Catholic brothers and sisters, who gave themselves wholeheartedly to the cause.

Prayers during assembly and Catechism classes are also disappearing from school curriculum and the majority of the students are now non-Catholics.

I have some questions for these schools:

During the Primary 1 registration, do popular Catholic schools give priority to Catholics at Phase 2B, when compared against the many non-Catholics who volunteer?

Why do non-Catholics fight for a place in a Catholic school and then demand secularism? This has caused many Catholic schools to remove mass prayer sessions and pastoral care classes, all of which I was exposed to when I was a child.

Why are non-Catholic principals chosen to lead Catholic schools in the first place? It is no wonder that Catholic schools end up being "elitist", as non-Catholic principals will eventually bow to the pressure for the school to excel strictly in academic terms.

I am sad that the Catholic Archdiocese can do nothing about this issue since all schools are now under the charge of the Ministry of Education.

---

Education ought to be secular. Isn't that the whole point of "one united people, regardless of race, language or religion"? Is being of a particular religion meant to be a criteria to entry into a school?

Lets say yes - how shall the child of six years be made to prove he is a devout follower of the religion? And just how devout is devout enough? Memorise the entirety of the religious text or will just knowing there's a religious text suffice? How actively must the faith be practiced?

Ah, but children of six years usually aren't deciding their own religion, so we'll have to look at the religion of the parents. So how devout shall the parents have to be? How far back into their past shall we look to assess their commitment to the religion? Background religious checks, exams, maybe a few pop quizzes. Also checks with the relevant person of religious authority.

What happens if the child grows up & decides to denounce that religion in favour of another? Or just if the child or parents become less religious after a schooling age. Perhaps they should be made to pay a sum to the school since they've obviously misdirected the school as to their true commitment to the religion. This sum should obviously vary according to how much variation there has been to the religious commitment, you know, to be fair.

We also have to remember that we're a multi-faith nation. So we're going to have to come up with a system where we can figure out whether religious commitment to a variety of gods is going to be of less, equal, or of more ranking than religious commitment. There's a host of debates right there. Splitting religious commitment could mean less commitment per god, or maybe the sum of commitment to various god totals more than the commitment to one. And then there's the religious commitment to any number of god(s) will suffice version.

Now all these stringent background checks, exams, pop quizzes, keeping track of religious commitment & religious commitment assessment systems is going to take a lot of time and cost a lot of money. Also, we're going to have to make sure that none of these infringes on any other policies and national obligations we have so we'll probably have to have at least one authority on the issue. Of course given that there are religious sensitivities here, we'll have to make sure that all religious groups are represented on the authority & someone's going to have to have a tie-breaker vote. I suggest that the tie-breaker vote either go to person who isn't of any religion, thinks himself to be god, is a secularist or just be rotated between the representatives on a weekly basis.

All those for a school system based where entry is based on religion, with persistent religious background checks and follow-ups, sky-high costs & a future of educational protectionism based on religion & religious segregation, raise your hands right about now.

Schools are meant to be assessed on their academia. On their performance as a whole. Academic and Co-curricular excellence are what mainstream schools are meant to achieve and the heads of the school would naturally have to put those above religious education to do so. Schools started off by religious groups started of that way just because they had the funding, it was of more assistance to particular children and easier to persuade the parents. If you want your child to get a religious education, how about sending your child to religious classes or teaching them the religion yourselves. Kill off a tuition and put in a religious education class on a weekend. Better yet, teach them about your religion yourselves.

It's appalling to think that the author deems Catholic schools to be elitist for admitting non-Catholics. When did education based on secularism become elitist?