Certification of Religious Education Programs in Catholic Schools

- A Conceptual Framework -

 

Fr. Jimmy A. Belita, CM - Director-at-Large, CEAP

1.       Background

nDuring the Board meeting of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) on February 26, 2004, Bishop Socrates B. Villegas, DD presented his proposal to assess or “accredit” the Religious education programs of Catholic schools in the country.

Said proposal was approved in the said Board meeting. Then, the CEAP Religious Education Commission met on March 25 and May 27, and discussed further the proposal.

In the course of the implementation of the certification scheme, it must be clarified that the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education (CBCP-ECCCE) is the main proponent and CEAP is just assisting.

This is particularly important to parochial and diocesan schools, which are under the jurisdiction of the Local Ordinary.

 

2.       Rationale

Religion is the core of the curriculum in Catholic schools. While not all CEAP schools can be PAASCU-accredited nor ISO-certified, all Catholic schools should have good Religious Education programs.

Instead of inspecting/policing/censoring Catholic schools, the proposed assessment of Religious Education Programs intends to enhance the existing formation programs and upgrade the skills of Religion teachers.

Doing so entails ascertaining the status, needs and areas for improvement in a Catholic school’s Religious Education program.

Afterwards, appropriate assistance or recommendations will be identified, in the spirit of communion and sharing of resources.

When the Religious Education program of a Catholic school is “certified”, it means that the school has met ECCCE’s minimum requirements for Rel.Ed. curriculum, teachers, contents of textbooks and reference materials, etc.

3.       Process

The whole assessment framework will be input-based, on the assumption that inputs (e.g., teacher’s educational background, textbooks, etc.) will result to the desired outputs, i.e., “good Christian graduates”.

There will be two stages, namely, assessment and certification. Initially, ECCCE/CEAP will just assess through a simple survey questionnaire the status, needs and areas for improvement in a Catholic school’s Religious Education program.

ECCCE/CEAP will only start to certify the Catholic schools’ Religious Education programs after the appropriate and acceptable “benchmarks” or “standards” have been identified based on the collected data in the initial stage.

4.       Assessment

A simplified and respondent-friendly fact sheet and self-survey instrument will be used. It will include among others the seminars attended by each Rel. Ed. teacher, further studies pursued, textbooks used, etc.

Respondents will be asked to rate the school’s Rel. Ed. program according to the different areas identified.

They will be asked also to suggest improvements in their program. They will be asked also to attach the school’s Rel. Ed. syllabus in basic education (i.e., elementary and high school). 

At this stage, instead of being competitive, comparative and regulatory, the whole assessment process will be fair and developmental.

The schools will be described according to their stated Rel. Ed. program purposes.

After the data gathering, the responses will be tabulated in order to come up with regional and national Rel. Ed. profiles of Catholic schools.  Based on the regional and national profiles, ECCCE and CEAP will jointly set the minimum competencies and standards which shall be used as the reference to certify the Catholic schools’ Religious Education programs.

5.       Certification

National and regional certifying teams will be formed to facilitate the whole process.  They will schedule actual school visitations.

The certification standards will be according to the following categories:

• schools that are below the minimum requirements or standards
• schools that are within the minimum requirements or standards
• schools that are above the minimum requirements or standards

6.       Areas Covered

Vision/Mission of the school vis-à-vis the Salvific Mission of the Church Religious instruction in the classroom vis-à-vis the total school curriculum

• Program of Studies
• Instructional Procedures
• Academic Performance of Students
• Supervision for Effective Instruction
• Instructional Administration
• Co-Curricular Activities

Christian Community: Quality of relationships among the administrators, faculty, non-teaching staff and students

Pastoral Ministry: Programs for the spiritual formation and Christian education of the academic community and all sectors of the school

Continuing Christian formation program for parents and alumni Social context and orientation of the school

• Immersion and Outreach Programs
• Extension Services to Church and Society

Participation in the pastoral life of the local Church

Structures (i.e., school buildings and facilities) provided to Live the Faith

7.       Documentation

The Catholic schools’ experiences and best practices shall be documented in terms of program design, content, instructional strategies/methodologies, activities, etc.

The list of resource books and other references used in Rel. Ed. classes will be consolidated.

PhilCARE could explore, identify, design, publish and market regional and national prototypes of Religious Education programs based on the experiences and best practices of the schools.

Parochial and diocesan schools particularly need the said prototype Rel. Ed. programs.

8.       Important Considerations

An important consideration is the Religion teachers’ limitations in terms of educational qualifications and trainings; knowledge of teaching strategies/methodologies; and teaching loads.

Teachers who are handling Rel. Ed. classes only are different from those with advisory classes or those who are teaching other subjects.

Catholic students who are graduates of Catholic elementary/secondary schools should be provided enrichment classes that are activity-based, focused on reaching out/serving the community, so as to avoid boredom.

Catholic students who are graduates of public/non-sectarian elementary/secondary schools should be provided intensive/thorough instruction in the faith so as to ensure sound understanding and application of essential Catholic teachings.

Non-Catholic students should be provided activities toward dialogue of religions instead of conversion.

Learning materials should be faithful to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catechism for Filipino Catholics, National Catechetical Directory of the Philippines, and ECCCE’s Minimum Learning Competency in Religious education.

The formal Rel. Ed.’s minimum contact time per week is 200 minutes, same as the other academic subjects in basic education level.

9.       For Future Research:

The following are some indicators of outputs, success and social impact of Catholic schools:

• Public life or witnessing of leaders who are graduates of Catholic schools – parishioners and community members could be interviewed.
• The number of vocations to priesthood and consecrated life as a long-term impact of Catholic education could be determined.
• Explore the possibility of coming up with a standardized achievement test in Religious Education that will measure the students’ lived faith: beliefs, attitudes, practices and perceptions.
• Possible models could be the NDEA experience and the NCEA-ACRE (National Catholic Educational Association – Assessment of Catechesis and Religious Education).  The various youth surveys (e.g., McCann-Erickson, Youth Study 2001, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth, etc.) may also be referred to in this regard.
• Public life or witnessing of leaders who are graduates of Catholic schools – parishioners and community members could be interviewed.
• The number of vocations to priesthood and consecrated life as a long-term impact of Catholic education could be determined.
• Explore the possibility of coming up with a standardized achievement test in Religious Education that will measure the students’ lived faith: beliefs, attitudes, practices and perceptions.
• Possible models could be the NDEA experience and the NCEA-ACRE (National Catholic Educational Association – Assessment of Catechesis and Religious Education).  The various youth surveys (e.g., McCann-Erickson, Youth Study 2001, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth, etc.) may also be referred to in this regard.
• Public life or witnessing of leaders who are graduates of Catholic schools – parishioners and community members could be interviewed.
• The number of vocations to priesthood and consecrated life as a long-term impact of Catholic education could be determined.
• Explore the possibility of coming up with a standardized achievement test in Religious Education that will measure the students’ lived faith: beliefs, attitudes, practices and perceptions.
• Possible models could be the NDEA experience and the NCEA-ACRE (National Catholic Educational Association – Assessment of Catechesis and Religious Education).
• The various youth surveys (e.g., McCann-Erickson, Youth Study 2001, CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Youth, etc.) may also be referred to in this regard.
  
  

On the concept of Recognition (20 minutes)

1. How do you feel about self-regulating your Catechetical Center/Religious Education Department and given Recognition?
2. What benefits do you think will your Center/Department get from the process of Recognition?
3. What difficulties do you think will the Center/Department face in undergoing the process of Recognition?

On the Procedure for Recognition (20 minutes)

1. How do I find the procedure for Recognition? Do I agree or disagree with the steps? If agree, why? If no, why disagree?
2. What other steps do you suggest for the procedure for Recognition?

On the Instrument for Recognition (60 minutes or 1 hour)

1. Does it cover all the areas in the catechetical formation or religious education curriculum? If not, what else do you think should be included?
2. How would you simplify the principles stated in the instrument?
3. After simplifying the principles, list as many observable behavioral indicators that manifest or express the principles