WelCom May 2019:
Catholic Schools throughout New Zealand will celebrate the fifth National Catholic Schools Day on Tuesday 28 May 2019. Organised by the New Zealand Catholic Education Office (NZCEO) this year’s theme is ‘Extending Christ’s call to love, to be, to do – Kia rangiwhāwhātia tā te Karaiti karanga: kia aroha, kia tūturu, kia mahi’.
National Catholic Schools Day celebrates and showcases Catholic Schools to local communities and to the country.
NZCEO has produced a number of materials and ideas to support schools on 28 May and throughout that week to reach out to communities.
Catholic education in New Zealand
- Early childhood services
- Primary schools
- Secondary schools
- Parish community education
- The Catholic Institute – tertiary education
- Diocesan and national adult education courses.
Catholic education worldwide
Catholic schools trace their origins to the first Benedictine Monasteries, which commenced in 530AD in Europe. The first universities in the western world began as Catholic institutions. The University of Bologna, Italy, founded in 1088, is the oldest university in the Western world. The first free schools for the children of ordinary citizens of the world were opened in France in 1681 by St John Baptist De La Salle, the patron of teachers. He also opened the world’s first Training College or College of Education for teachers. Former students of Catholic schools’ number in the hundreds of millions. (Information from the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church, 2018 – figures at 31 December 2016.)