Catholic church wants back schools in good shape

The Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna, His Grace Most Reverend Matthew Man-Oso Ndagoso has said that it is a matter of justice for the state government to return schools taken from the Catholic church;  stressing the need for them to be returned in good shape just as they were when they were taken over.

Queen of Apostles, now Queen Amina College; St. Johns, is now Rimi College; and WTC, now Government Women Secondary School, are among Catholic schools taken over by the state government in the 1970s.

Speaking at the 2018 general assembly in Kaduna themed: ‘Education and the mission of the church’, the archbishop said, “There is no good when you take somebody’s property, ruin them and then bring back the ruins. This is the problem we are having in the northern states.”

“The reason why we had these schools working before they were taken over was that, there was partnership between the government and the church; the state was helping the schools while the church was running the schools for the whole Nigeria. So, nothing will stop us from resuming such partnership again. We educate not only Christians but all that come to our schools. This has been the history, we never discriminate,” he said.

While he condemned the state of education in the country, he emphasized that the Catholic Church had always given sound education for life. “For almost 20 to 30 years we have been emphasizing the importance of religious education. The human body is both material and physical, so, you cannot take care of only the physical part, you need to also educate the heart and the intellectual information; then you will have people who can become good leaders in the country.”

“Though, we have a good number of civil servants and leaders who were privileged to go to school run by the missionaries but that generation is almost facing out and my fear is that if even those that got that education are behaving the way they are behaving now; I   wonder what will happen to people who did not get that moral formation or any special formation in terms of their education. The truth of the matter is that the education we are giving now is half education because we are not taking care of the spiritual and moral formation and that is why we are facing all manner of atrocities in the society,” Ndagoso said.

Earlier in his paper presentation titled, ‘Values and ideals of catholic education in the promotion of human dignity’ the Vicar general archdiocese of Jos, Reverend Professor Cletus Gotan lamented that the numerous problems affecting Nigeria arise from lack of proper education.

According to him, with integral education, the human person can be formed to be loving and caring, able to actualize his or her potential, contribute to the attainment of the common good and fulfill his/her aspirations. “Quality education in this respect has a religious and moral content,” he stressed.