To the service of the country

Born with the mission of helping the poor, the Catholic schools financed by the State and run by the Church, which have always been successful – fulfilling the parents’ wishes for their children’s education – are marked by higher percentages of students with non-British background compared to public schools. In an interview with SIR Europe, the deputy director of the Department for Education of the Bishops’ Conference Greg Pope, commentating on the figures of the latest census on Catholic institutions in the Country, defends such institutions from the attacks of secularists, underlines Christian schools’ role in tackling the question of students from non-church-going families and explains why some of the changes introduced by the conservative government in the field of education are interesting for the Catholic realm. In a speech delivered a few days ago at the association of British headmasters, David Levin, the principal of a private school in London, said that the centre of London is being turned into “apartheid-era Johannesburg” since, accordingly, the students attend ghetto schools where they are divided according to the color of their skin. Such segregations sparked off the guerrilla past August…“I don’t agree and certainly such statements don’t involve Catholic schools with a wide range of students from various ethic groups, also in the most difficult areas of London. The latest data of our 2010 Census shows that 29.2% of all students in Catholic elementary schools belong to ethnic minority groups, compared to 25.5% in national schools. Also in the case of secondary schools, the percentage of non-English students is higher in Catholic schools: 25.2%, compared to the 21.4% at national level. Our schools’ mission has always been to work in very poor neighborhoods. I believe that the urban guerrilla in August was caused by materialistic mindsets. Our schools teach students values that are unrelated to money”.Secularists often accuse the Catholic, Anglican and Jewish schools of causing divisions across society. Is that the case? “There exists a strong organized group in the media and in parliament that criticizes religious schools. Catholic schools have always been very successful among parents to whom the English state has guaranteed for a long time the right to choose their children’s education. The number of students attending all 2289 Church-run schools – representing 10% of all schools – has grown from 781,400 in 2009 to 784,808 in 2010”.Often the parents of children in Catholic schools don’t attend Mass and don’t give their children a religious education. How do you intend to address this challenge? “Approximately 70% of our pupils are Catholic. It’s a very high number, and we never aimed at 100% since we value the presence of pupils belonging to other religions and the importance of diversity in the classroom. If the parents are non-church goers the school can act as a point of reference, and remind the family of the Catholic values that need to be followed. I must say that a large percentage of our teachers aren’t Catholic – approximately 44% – but they give an important contribution to the school”.In English public life there exists a clash between secularization and religion. Catholic adoption agencies, for example, were forced to close because legislation on equal opportunities compelled them to consider also same-sex couples as candidates for adoptive parenthood. With these laws, is the right of Catholic schools to select pupils and teachers on the basis of their faith at risk? “No, even if secularist MPs want to abolish this right. The government has ensured us that it will be protected, and in fact the “Equality act” of 2010 grants the possibility for Catholic schools to select pupils and teachers according to their religious faith”.The conservative government is liberalizing the sector of education introducing ‘free schools’ that can be set up by groups of parents. What’s your opinion? “It’s an interesting idea. Our problem is that for these schools the government demands that 50% of students be non-Catholic, while in Catholic schools baptized students usually represent 70% of all students”.