Catholic schools, "excellent training grounds for good citizens, important places of promotion of social participation". This was found by a survey of the "Von Hugel Centre for the promotion of faith within society", an important ecumenical survey centre based in Cambridge which conducted a survey of over 1400 students in nineteen schools in England and Wales. The survey, which also includes interviews with about one hundred teachers, aims at finding out how much time and energy the Catholic churches invest in civics. An important issue, considering that Catholics in England and Wales are a minority: only 5% of the population, and that until the late nineteenth century they were not granted any civil rights because of well-known historical and political reasons. The result is that "citizenship education", or civics, has a specific place in the school timetable of the Catholic schools and is also addressed when the students are dealing with different subjects. (continued)
