The status quo of the ‘religious mission’ in selected catholic secondary schools in Lusaka district, Zambia.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the status quo of the ‘religious mission’ in selected Catholic secondary schools in Lusaka District of Zambia. The objectives of the study were: to establish the status quo regarding the ‘religious mission’ in selected Catholic secondary schools in Lusaka District; to assess whether the ‘religious mission’ is correctly implemented in selected Catholic secondary schools in Lusaka District; to explore the challenges faced by Catholic secondary schools in the implementation of the ‘religious mission’ in Lusaka District; to suggest possible ways of how Catholic secondary schools can best achieve the ‘religious mission’ in Lusaka District. The research used qualitative approach and adopted a descriptive design to address the research questions. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with a total sample of 33 participants. Homogenous purposive sampling was used in selecting the participants. The data collected was analysed thematically by coding, categorizing and putting it under themes related to the objectives of the study. The findings of this study revealed that the status quo of the ‘religious mission’ in selected Catholic secondary schools in Lusaka District of Zambia was present. However, it was weak as most of the schools concentrated more on academics than on the evangelisation mission. The implementation of the ‘religious mission’ could be said to be only at fifty percent in the schools in Lusaka District. The schools had a number of challenges among them was that the majority of the pupils enrolled in the schools were non-Catholics. The majority of the teachers were also non-Catholics, in some cases, 70% of the teachers were non-Catholic and did not believe in the Catholic faith. The study concluded that there was a lot of laxity in the implementation of Catholic religious programmes and that the schools which had religious brothers, priests or sisters in their administration implemented the religious programmes better. The study concluded that the celebration of Holy Mass could be more frequent because the preaching of the word and homilies, listened to by the learners, helped them to learn what the word of God and the Church taught. The study recommends that Catechism lessons should be introduced and taught in all the Catholic secondary schools. The Catholic secondary schools need to have more Eucharist celebrations where the learners would get to listen to the preaching of the word and the homily for their prayer and holistic formation. In addition, attending of Mass should not be optional for both pupils and the teachers because all need salvation and formation. Furthermore, the study recommends that Catholic clubs should be encouraged so that the learners could get on-going formation which was important in the attainment of their faith. Keywords: Catholic Education, Catholic Identity, Catholic grant-aided secondary school, Religious Mission, Status Quo.