Catholic schools, numbers and quality

There are approximately 220 Catholic educational institutions in Slovakia, representing 3.7% of all schools. Out of a total number of 840 thousand schools, some 28,200 (4.5%) pupils attend Catholic schools and their numbers are increasing, thanks to the high quality of the schools, with above-average rankings. Almost all of them have been established with the purpose of educating young students in conformity with the religious faith of their fathers and mothers. Thus the majority of primary and secondary schools have a “pastoral trait” but – according to Jan Horecky, president of the Association of Catholic Schools of Slovakia, interviewed for SIR Europe by Danka Jaceckova – a major challenge consists in the creation of schools for evangelization, open also to those who are “seeking answers” and to pupils of other religions or atheists, providing them with the “opportunity to meet Jesus Christ in his disciples”: teachers and pupils who received the foundations of the faith inside their own families and could therefore become an “evangelizing nucleus” in those schools. Could you tell us something more about the origins and ongoing projects of the Associations of Catholics Schools in Slovakia (ACSS)? “It was established in 1993 as an answer to the creation of the first schools run by the Catholic Church after the ‘velvet revolution’ of 1989, with the purpose of helping those schools from the standpoint of legislation and methodology, and to represent the Catholic educational system in our society. ACSS is the only platform uniting all Catholic educational institutions in Slovakia. Naturally, these schools are in the hands of our bishops and religious superiors; they are a tool of the Church to help spread the Gospel in the area of education, formation of children, youths, and families as a whole. Clearly, the association represents the Catholic school system to the general public, to other associations and platforms and vis a vis government authorities, institutions and the media”. To what extent is your voice listened to and respected? “The experience of relations with our partners has given us consistent credit, which enables us to participate without problems in all areas related to formation and education. In this way we managed to ensure that education to marriage and parenthood is considered a strategic, concrete educational commitment in the national learning curricula, compulsory for all schools in Slovakia. Thanks to our intervention, we obtained that the topics involving gender ideology be removed from that program. We introduced a Christian approach on various crucial issues in society, among which the funding of schools or the national strategy in the area of human rights, and we intend to continue in this direction. We are currently working on material and innovative methods of marriage and parenthood education that can be transmitted to children of Christian and non-Christian families alike”. The annual ACSS meeting took place a few weeks ago. What were the highlights of event? “We discussed about the development of societies in Western European countries along with the possibility for schools to have an influence to this regard. The national strategy for the protection and support of human rights along with its impact on education: the presentation of an alternative to inappropriate sexual education. The highlight of most of the debates was a feeling of joint co-responsibility for the future of Slovakia, while several concrete missionary and educational initiatives have been implemented in the Church and across society thanks to our schools”. You are the ACSS president and also the headmaster of one of the most prominent Catholic schools in Slovakia. What are the major challenges that the Catholic educational system is called to address? “Our schools have a clear and comprehensible outlook, marked by higher performance compared to other schools. For this reason also non-Catholic families decide to send their children to our schools. The school system is under constant attack by new ideologies and often children are the object of irresponsible experiments, in the name of a ‘total emancipation’ or even of an ‘anthropological revolution.’ This outlook is destructive for individuals and society as a whole. On the other hand, Catholic schools have a clear proposal on where a child can remain a child, a boy can grow to become a fulfilled adult, a girl can grow into a woman, from the perspective of the full accomplishment of individual vocation for earthly and eternal joy. The pupils and their parents are aware of this, and the entire community develops in simplicity and truth, without false attitudes. This is very encouraging”.