Recently, I referred to a recent development in strategic thinking of governments in Australia, around education.

It’s important to remember that all governments are responding to electoral imperatives. They have to ensure that the community perceives its schools as being safe environments where their children are well prepared for individual employment. From a political perspective, successful schools are related to national prosperity. They can also be powerful instruments of a healthy social policy, promoting cohesion and fostering good citizenship.

These are worthy preoccupations and Catholic schools take them all on board.

Because of the religious worldview out of which they operate, however, Catholic schools are able to embed and give witness to worthwhile priorities of governments within a rich educational environment.

We certainly do prepare our students for participatory citizenship and productive employment. But our aim is more ambitious. We seek to focus on the full person whose intellectual, aesthetic, emotional and spiritual capacities are enriched with a profound sense of moral purpose, a purpose that is over 2000 years old.

To this end, our pedagogy is primarily relational. Its task is to help develop both the individual and society, resulting not just in greater prosperity but in personal and cultural transformation, which finds its inspiration in the incarnation.

The educational philosophy which provides the framework for this is built around clear and explicit beliefs, values and church teachings: the dignity of each person, the sacredness of the environment, the responsibilities we have for each other, our capacity to make a difference, the firm conviction that there is every reason to live with hope and joy, and so on.

Within this philosophical context, both learning and teaching are enhanced by creativity, flexibility, team-work and autonomy.

We share with all governments and school systems a commitment to the common good. We also offer an alternative world view to strictly utilitarian approaches to education, reminding ourselves, and all who will listen, that genuine education is a rich and seamless fabric.

How do Catholic schools meet the demands of a contemporary world and bear witness to the Catholic worldview? Who is responsible for ensuring this happens?