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| Bishop Maurice Muhatia, Chairman of Education Commission Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops KCCB |
Commission for Education at Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) on Friday 13thMarch, 2015, officially launched the Association of Catholic Private Education Institutions, with the mandate of bringing together all private Catholic Institutions in the country.
“The formation of this Association gives us a forum to address issues of interest to us such that when we want to communicate something, we have a forum through which we can talk to our people involved in education,” explained Bishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba, the Chairman of the Commission and Bishops of Nakuru.
During the inaugural meeting at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) from 10thto Friday 13th, over 500 Principals and Directors of Catholic Educational Institutions in Kenya, discussed a range of issues. This include pastoral care in schools and quality of education; enhancing the identity of Catholic schools in the country and lobbying the government and other stake holders in the education sector to enhance the quality of education in the county
In order to emphasize the unique role of the Church in promoting quality education, Bishop Muhatia said, “We are concerned about what is going on in the education sector and we want to see what we as Church, can contribute towards making the education sector a better sector that helps in improving the lives of the Kenyan society.”
He urged the delegates at the meeting to offer quality education that focuses on the dignity of the human person. “When you talk about the dignity of the human person, you are talking about virtues like truthfulness, honestly and quality of the service rendered. What can we do as Church is to give the best attention to the children during their formative years,” Bishop Muhatia said.
On ranking schools based on examinations results, the Bishop said, “I support the ministry of education because ranking has been infiltrated by corruption. It's no longer reflecting what it was intended to be.” He said that ranking schools is a very good thing but so long as it has not been streamlined and has been infiltrated by bad guys, the meaning is completely lost. “Ranking has been commercialized, people are not ranked according to what they deserve but according what they can buy,” he said.
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News