Catholic Schools in Crisis

In Singapore, parents wanting to enrol their children in a primary school have to undergo a multi-phased selection process in the following stages:

1. Singapore citizens living within 1km of the school
2. Singapore citizens living between 1km to 2km from the school
3. Singapore citizens living outside 2km of the school
4. Permanent residents living within 1 km of the school
5. Permanent residents living between 1km to 2 km of the school
6. Permanent residents living outside of 2km from the school

Balloting happens when the number of vacancies available are fewer than the number of applicants.

(Ministry of Education 2024)

According to the data from the 2023 primary school vacancy and balloting exercise (2024b),

The numbers for the Catholic schools presented as follows:

(Ministry of Education 2024b)

What these figures present is the reality of a demographic shift of Singapore moving towards an aging population. As population numbers decrease, so too the numbers of enrollment would naturally decline as well. In addition, these figures also give evidence of how our 18 Catholic primary schools are faring in relation to the total number of 181 primary schools in Singapore. While previous enrollments were often oversubscribed, the current numbers show a steady overall trend of fewer locals sending their children to Catholic schools. In contrast, a higher percentage of Permanent Residents and foreigners appear to be maintaining the numbers. These numbers thus give an insight to the symptoms of a prevailing condition, and in excavating these symptomatic signs, the invitation is to dig deeper: While mission schools previously took first choice in the hearts of many, presenting high numbers from those who were from the other religions as well, the recent years have seen the numbers plummet drastically. What were previously exclusive to Mission Schools – an English-language medium curriculum, firm foundations in the Sciences, can now be found a stone’s throw away even if you blindfolded yourself, in a secular mainstream school.

The elephant in the room is, why is it that fewer Catholics are sending their own children to Catholic schools? This issue is exacerbated by how only 16% of the teaching staff in the Catholic schools are themselves Catholic (Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools 2024).

Is there a cultural cringe or stigma with sending our children to Catholic schools? If so, are we embarrassed of our faith? Or have the perceived practicalities of sending our children to a secular mainstream school outweighed any benefit of sending our children to Catholic schools? For example, the thought that my child has a better chance at succeeding in life if I send my child to secular mainstream school because the school’s ranking and reputation are higher? That we even need to grapple with these questions is a symptom of a deeper malaise that our faith is surely and steadily being eroded away before our eyes – that our priorities are very likely in the wrong places.

At the heart of this, is the question of what makes a Catholic School Catholic and what differentiates a Catholic School from a secular school so much so that there would be a compelling reason for parents to enrol their children in these Catholic Schools?

The Holy See defines the following as being the marks of a Catholic School (Miller 2006; Franchi 2007):

1. Inspired by a Supernatural Vision

• Catholic education is a process that aims to form a child in the alignment of his or her transcendent destiny – to one day be in Heaven.
• The truth of what is meant to be a child, made in the image and likeness of our Maker and called to life in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is taught.
• Catholic education works to form a child as a good citizen of this world who is of this world, yet set apart, who has a love for God and neighbour, and who enriches the world by being salt and light to the world.
• A Catholic school emphasizes the dignity of a person and upholds a child’s spiritual dimension.

2. Founded on a Christian Anthropology

• Grace builds upon nature, and it is a Catholic school’s mandate and responsibility to bring about a deep and profound appreciation in a child, of what is meant to order all activity with the Christian concept of who a person is.
• A Catholic School, like the Church is founded on Christ. Christ is not an afterthought to Christian educational philosophy, the curriculum that is taught, the community life, the teaching and learning activities, the selection of its educators, and the physical environment, but is at the heart and centre, the very fulcrum of the development of a person.
• Christ is the teacher in a Catholic School. The Christological focus and the accompanying understanding of a human person in Christ must be centre-stage.

3. Animated by Communion and Community

• The Catholic School is a community of persons and of faith.
• A Catholic School prepares a child to enter into the Church’s community, with teachers, parents, bishops, parishes, and students working together to foster a place and ecosystem of Catholicity. There is a mutual participation of the schools’ charisms, where religious, moral, sexual education, career and profession guidance, and vocation discernment are not based on what is convenient, but built on the foundations of Scripture, the Gospel Values, and the teaching of the Magisterium.
• The school environment needs to be conducive to growing and nurturing the faith, by integrating the sacramental with the every-day. A school day thus needs to be infused with an atmosphere of prayer, and the celebration of the Sacraments and Liturgy.

4. Imbued with a Catholic Worldview through its curriculum

• Life and faith are not two separate compartments where someone may live in bits and pieces, taking what is desirable from one drawer and leaving the rest.
• A Catholic school is the locus where faith, reason, culture, and life are brought together and interwoven to exist in harmony with each other.
• The forming and developing of a student’s faculties prepares the student for a professional life where Faith is a compass and the filter, and prepares the child for a life that is ethical and dignified, and where his or her life is constantly guided by the Gospels.
• Catholicity should radiate from every aspect of school-life.

5. Sustained by Gospel Witness

• Everyone in the school, from its administrative staff to its educators and students, are vital witnesses to the Catholic Faith.
• Their lives reveal Christ in their authentic witnessing to the Truth and culminates in evangelising through their words and actions.
• The pedagogy has to be informed by the Divine Pedagogy of Christ the Teacher, and there has to be an intentional practice of living out the Christian virtues.

Professor Thomas Groome (2021) from Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry gives an example of what is meant to provide a Catholic education in a Catholic School. In Pakistan, he witnessed a situation wherein the staff of the Catholic School he was observing were predominantly Muslim and that the majority of the students were Muslim, yet the school managed to “educate from a faith perspective and for a faith perspective.” (Sullivan 2022, para. 5) Professor Groome went on to explain that a Catholic School prepares its students with a curriculum that is academically sound and suitably rigoured, highly competent and capable so as to allow these students to live a life and make a living, but also prepares them for a life that has its foundations deeply rooted from a Faith perspective. This does not mean that a Catholic ethos and belief are forced unto the students, but that students are invited “to consider a spiritual grounding for their lives in the world that might make their lives a little more meaningful, worthwhile, purposeful, ethical, and might sustain them in the tough times.” (Sullivan 2022, para. 7).

At this juncture, there is a dire need for institutions to be beacons and vanguards of upholding Catholicity. With the decline in ordained vocations to the archdiocese and the religious life, Catholic Schools are facing a crisis of relevancy and face an onslaught of secularism. In these modern times, we need Catholic schools more than ever, but enrollment is not sustainable if these schools do not receive funding, the buy-in of alumni and Catholic parents, or a steady flow of students annually, and the clock is ticking with more of such schools opting to merge or to cease their operations completely.

There is a pressing invitation for Catholic Schools as well to re-root, and to re-consider their Catholic ethos and identity, for renewal in these schools, and even for the courage to pivot in the ways that the Lord God is inviting the schools to. To embrace new and exciting pedagogies that interweave the Faith with the Curriculum, to make Catholic Schools sites of visible witness, and to refocus on what/who is really important – Christ.

This paradigm shift, begins at home where the heart of the family is, and with the transformation of how catechesis is taught.  It is not easy, but if we do not begin to consider these issues seriously now, then it may be a case of quite too little, too late, when the closure of Catholic Schools marks the point of no-return.

By the Grace of God,

Brian Bartholomew Tan

References

Archdiocesan Commission for Catholic Schools. 2024. “Are Catholic Schools still relevant in Singapore today?” Catholic News. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://catholicnews.sg/2024/02/07/are-catholic-schools-still-relevant-in-singapore-today/

Franchi, Leonard. 2007. An Anthology of Catholic Teaching on Education. Scepter Publishers.

Groome, Thomas. 2021. What Makes Education Catholic: Spiritual Foundations. Orbis Books.

Miller, Michael  J. 2006. “Five Essential Marks of Catholic Schools.” chap. 3 in The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools, : 17-63. Atlanta: Sophia Institute Press.

Ministry of Education. 2024. “Understanding how balloting works.” Ministry of Education. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.moe.gov.sg/primary/p1-registration/understand-balloting

Ministry of Education. 2024b. “Vacancies and balloting data: 2023 P1 Registration Exercise.” Ministry of Education. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.moe.gov.sg/primary/p1-registration/past-vacancies-and-balloting-data

Sullivan, Kathleen. 2022. “What makes education Catholic?” Boston College. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/faith-religion/ministry/groome-book-what-makes-education-catholic.html