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The Importance of a Catholic Education

“Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it”
– Proverbs 22:6

 

Parents have the primary moral responsibility of educating children to adulthood. Deciding which school they will choose for their children’s education is probably be one of the most life-defining choices they will be making for them. How should parents make this choice? What should they consider?

All MOE schools in Singapore are good schools; they provide good academic grounding and values education. What, then, distinguishes a Catholic school? Why should Catholic parents choose a Catholic school for their child? A child given the gifts of a Catholic education will be imbued with values grounded in Christ, the primary teacher.

The Holy See’s teaching on Catholic schools states: “Christ is not an afterthought or an add-on to Catholic educational philosophy; he is the centre and fulcrum of the entire enterprise, the light enlightening every boy and girl who comes into a Catholic school”. Catholic schools are places of encounters with Christ through learning. They offer the pursuit of knowledge in an environment of faith, love and values. The time a child spends in primary school comprises the formative years in a child’s development. One of the most crucial considerations for Catholic parents is to choose a school that provides a good foundation not just in knowledge acquisition but also in character building and spiritual formation.

Our Catholic schools were founded by different religious orders and they cater to the varied and diverse needs of children in Singapore. Although they have different charisms, all our Catholic schools are united in the concerted effort to imbue in every child two main principles of the Catholic Social Teaching – the principle of Human Dignity and the principle of Common Good. Catholic schools, therefore, aspire to graduate students who will know that every person is made in God’s image and likeness and has value and that their education can help them contribute to the good of the larger community, not just themselves.

“A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person, and a good Catholic school, over and above all this, should help all of its students to become saints.” – Pope Benedict XVI

 

 

Published as “Importance of a Catholic Education” (p6, CatholicNews, 28 Jun 2020).