The Sunday Mail
THE Roman Catholic Church, Social Communications Commission (SOCCOM) last week facilitated dialogue on the new curriculum being implemented in schools under the guidance of the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Lazarus Dokora.
In attendance were members of the Catholic Church, teachers and students from schools which included St Ignatius College, Arundel School, Dominican Convent, St Dominics Chishawasha, St John’s Emerald and St Georges College.
The Sunday Mail Society’s Desire Ncube caught up with Dr Dokora who shed more light on the dialogue.
Read on…
Q: There is a worry among parents who think that ECD children are being burdened as they are expected to do a lot during their studies. (Also) the fact that religion is silent from ECD (A) to Grade Two; it’s a worry and concern for parents. What is your comment?
Minister Dokora: On the silence of religion that was a deliberate move by the ministry to leave parents to instil whatever religion that they believe in. At the age of four and five, parents must continue to take their children to whatever church they are going, be it Sunday School or evening services or to any other faith that they want. For us in the education sector we organised that space to make sure that we create a structured foundation of formal education.
Q: If a non-Catholic student is studying at a Catholic School and refuses to attend a Mass what is the headmaster or the mission authorities supposed to do?
Dr Dokora: First of all let me start with the constitution. It says there should be no discrimination on the grounds of religion, tribe, linguistic, gender among other forms of discrimination at schools. Now if the school was established by a particular church they expect to enrol children who bring baptismal certificates among other things that show that the students they are enrolling belong to their faith.
But they do not necessarily say 100 percent Catholic kids. No they must not do that. They should leave space for children who do not belong to their faith. Let me ask a question, “If the church grows, does it grow with its own members?” The answer is no. A church grows when it brings people to its fold.
Masses are important for the ethos of the school. The authorities can say we are a church school and everybody shall attend the Masses. But unless there is a concessions objection and you then allow concessions objection. But the school must create other space for Bible schooling, Bible study and other church related activities.
That will help the school to lure children who do not belong to the school faith. As a ministry we encourage this approach because when the teacher is in the class room teaching a particular syllabus they must stick to the syllabus. Teachers must not be preachers.
Q: Looking at the content of the syllabus, Family and Religion, students are asking questions they don’t know a lot about (e.g) mashavi (spirit mediums)? The other challenge is that we have moved away from the Bible as the majority of our nation believes in the Bible. Should we not create a scenario where people choose if they want to do Family and Religion and if they want to do the old syllabus were we had the study of the Bible alone?
Minister Dokora: The Pope recently issued a teaching on family and I think as Catholics you have read it. I think the good thing about the Pope is that he teaches some of these things and it should be very easy for Catholics to understand why family is attached to religion.
We have spoken of religion in isolation and we have said in the new curriculum, the philosophical underpinning is to bring up a child in the spirit of Unhu or Ubuntu.
Respectful, forthright and instil in their minds the value of being honest and hard working so we can escape some of the worst things that affect some of the areas of our socio-economic activities.
And therefore teaching of family is to underpin those values. If I live with my grandfather, am I living with family? There will be many answers because we have gravitated towards saying family means father, mother and me the child.
So when grandmother comes to visit and you say to the child can you share your bedroom with your sister so as to create room for grandmother, two days later the child will ask when this old woman is going back. The old woman is the grandmother she is not being seen as part of the family.
Hence the new curriculum is all about restoring values in our children. On issues of mashavi there are in the curriculum because we have people who are practicing them in our country. It’s a reality hence we can’t ignore it. Teachers are not preachers, they only should expose children to the practices that are in our nation.
