Discovery

Traits of Nsukka Catholic Schools found in cities and rural areas.  These care for highly motivated students from nursery through secondary school.  Here are some of their findings.

• The school is accountable to a diocesan education director and office of administration. The Director of Diocesan Education Commission is Rev. Fr. G. U. Dine and the Secretary Diocesan Education Commission is Mr. Lazarus Oga Ugwu. Both administrators have extensive experience in the Nigerian education system.
• National standards and testing guide the educational process. Teachers must follow the standards and “teach to the test” in order for students to pass from grade to grade. Learning is by rote with few books, tools and technology to support the learning process. Tests are provided by the state and are administered by teachers to an entire class. There is little or no individually guided education.
• Although some of the buildings are old (pre-Biafra War), the Catholic schools are relatively “new” because at the close of the war the government took over the schools and education became entirely public in that area of the country. It is only recently, within the last ten years, that Bishop Francis Okobo successfully negotiated with the Nigerian government to resume Catholic education under his authority. Some of the schools we visited are only three years old.
• Each school has capacity or over capacity enrollment. Whether Catholic or not, parents are enrolling their children out of the perception that Catholic schools do a better job of educating. There is no way that we can prove the validity of this perception in our data.