Day 1: Engaging th the Power to Transform

This transformation will occur by using the Vision 2020 which was prepared by  Mbido Olu Igu Akwukwo Katolik: Project Genesis Catholic Education  The Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Catholic Schools in Partnership with the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka that will direct the work of the seminar participants.  You will find this outline in the DREAMS section posted last week.  This cooperative participation of all facets of the school community, in this week-long seminar will bring this vision out into the open, with the help of our Creative God.

Meet Fr. Willy Odo, Judicial Vicar, Nsukka Diocese

Father Willy Odo, Judicial Vicar, Nsukka Diocese from CARITAS For Children on Vimeo.

Bishop Okobo welcomes Chicago Delegation

BISHOP OKOBO'S LETTER TO CHICAGO FRIENDS

Destiny

Our questions about Direction have us look at the vision the Catholic educational leaders and teachers see for their schools, and how those visions can be realized. We do this together, not alone. As we move through time in the partnership, we will make adjustments to enable the change we seek. We want our outcomes and values to be realized through the educational process. We want to provide our students with a cutting edge education that gives them hope for their futures and for the future of Nigeria.

In the evolving struggle to face the challenges and to create something new together, we see our destiny unfold. What results can we anticipate over time? How can we insure that the Catholic schools of the Diocese of Nsukka will be vibrant educational centers where students can create their future with the tools needed in a complex and diverse society. Times are not easy, but they are always full of potential. We have but to see and to walk one step at a time in the direction that leads to life. This is what our faith tells us to believe.

Cooperrider believes that the Appreciative Inquiry approach is based on a spirituality of hope and life. John writes, “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Our deepest hopes and dreams come from a center that rests in the presence of God Who is all in all. Even in the most tragic of happenings or most difficult challenges, we can lift ourselves up and keep on going with an inner dignity that stems from the One who sustains us.

Direction

This direction phase leads into the final phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process. The faces of the children already overcrowded into classrooms remain at the center of setting these directions. The questions about what’s workable and how we frame the common commitments must be set in what is realistic in the long run. While the formal partnership is only for five years, the hope and logic is that the relationship will last much longer. Key to the success of this joint diocesan effort is the relationships built out of a shared vision of the future and a well-defined partnership that creates meaningful points of convergence and creativity.

Dreams

Many people are stakeholders in the Catholic Schools of Nsukka Nigeria. Previous teams spoke with these stakeholders and developed this list of dreams for their schools.  One of the present team is working primarily on teacher, principal and parent development through the Seminar they are presenting.  Another present team is working on with the local hospital within Nsukka to create partnerships that support the health of the children in an area where many children do not live long enough to go to school.

• Catholic identity
• education in Christian values and moral living
• commitment of bishop
• students have a vision for their future
• students motivated to learn
• dedicated and strong teachers and principals
• capacity and desire to solve our problems
• parents who use the schools support them
• well organized
• solid learning programs
• improve over time
• competitive
• students contribute to social transformation in Nigeria

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.