“I am sister Marceline M., and I have been working for ten years in the Associated Catholic Schools in the Central African Republic.
My job is to go to the schools and check that all the Associated Catholic Schools apply the curriculum, because the type of teaching we follow is called Enseignement Catholique Associé de Centrafrique. This means that the diocese, the church, the state and parents work together to provide education for children. So we try to provide quality education.
As secretary, I visit schools in the diocese to check that they all apply the program developed by the Ministry of Education.”
What makes this type of program special?
“We don’t just use our heads, but starting with the ministry curriculum, I make sure that teachers are able to provide quality teaching. In other words, they have to update their records, prepare lessons, keep track of pupils, do homework and so on, and I try to keep up with them. At the diocesan level, we also organize training events to update teachers, because, as they say, a teacher who stops learning also stops teaching. So we organize pedagogical training days, for the continuing education of teachers. We regularly visit schools, to see the atmosphere in which pupils work and make sure that classrooms and teachers are up to par, that school principals meet the educational standards of our facilities.”
How do you set this kind of integral education towards students?
“In what we teach we do not give only intellectual knowledge. We make sure that the education we impart develops the student in his or her entirety: on a human, intellectual and also spiritual level, because we make sure that the human being integrates all these elements to blossom harmoniously.”
What are the fruits that flow from this work?
“For me, the joy of what I do is that every year is what I see in the various institutions of our Catholic and associated schools: the number of pupils is increasing and every year more and more parents are joining our schools. This gives us great joy, because it shows the trust that parents place in us, entrusting their children to us.
It also gives us great joy to see students blossom, from when they come to us at first, with fear and trepidation to move forward, to when we see them gradually opening up and learning. So when you see students taking their knowledge into their own hands, that is, doing research, asking questions, making progress, it is a pleasure. It is also good to see teachers working together, helping each other to make progress and pass on quality education to their pupils. This is also a mission that God has entrusted to us with regard to young people and children in general.
For me, therefore, it is really a great pleasure to render this service, to be with young people, to accompany them in their development and in the service they will have to render in the Church and society.
