Rooted in the family” “

An ever growing number of parents are choosing schools of Catholic type for their children. That’s what emerges from a survey recently conducted by OE-GIAPEC, an umbrella association representing the parents of children attending European Catholic schools. Recognized as a non-governmental organization by the EU, it is linked, at the world level, with the European Committee for Catholic Education (ECCE) and the International Organization for Catholic Education (IOCE). The data coming from 6 countries – Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, France and Greece – show the prevalence of a model of family life still firmly rooted in the married couple, with an average of 2.53 children per nuclear family. The survey findings show that the children of school age of these nuclear families attend in the main Catholic schools (77.2%), while only 17.6% attend state schools. It’s just on the basis of these findings that OE-GIAPEC organized a conference in Rome on 7 December, with the title “The Catholic School in Europe: What Future – What Freedom?”. “The survey – said Alain Laflorentie, general secretary of OE-GIAPEC – shows the great disparity in the financial burdens supported by families in the various states. The cost of nursery school, for example, is zero in all the countries considered with the exception of Italy where the cost is on average 123 euros per month. In Ireland primary and secondary schooling too is wholly funded by the State, while in the other countries striking disparities in the costs of primary and secondary schooling are found: in France respectively 56 and 75 euros, in Belgium 100 and 150, in Greece 200, in Italy 161 and 184, in Hungary 120 and zero cost for secondary school. State aid, therefore, is not the same for all European countries, and public subsidies are in many cases inadequate or even non-existent. This should be seen against a background of wide support, corresponding to 69% of the parents interviewed, for states to assume the financial burden for education both in public and private schools”. On the question of more incisive state support for Catholic schools, Fr. Nicolas Capelle, representative of the brothers of La Salle Catholic schools, explained: “Catholic schools in Europe possess some strong points: a well-consolidated tradition, well-trained teachers, a rather good public image, at times public funding and social partnership, and families that place trust in them. Often, however, the contractual relation with the State leaves us with scope for discretion which we fail to make sufficient use of. So deeply do we wish to prove ourselves trusted partners in the rules imposed on us by the state that we conform ourselves to the educational nostrums of the day without sufficiently comparing them with our own objectives and our own specific values. We automatically preclude initiatives that could represent valid educational alternatives and help clarify our own Christian aims”. How then can we recover the more authentic inspiration that gave rise to Catholic schools in the first place? “By reviving our spirit of enterprise – continued Capelle –. We must take the initiative, by focusing on the real needs of the young, by seeking alternative funding, and by promoting volunteer service and formation”.