I will try to clarify what it means for a grant-aided institution to be called a 'Catholic' institution in Zambia today. In doing so, I will use the models provided by

James Arthur in his book, The Ebbing Tide. I will conclude with some teachers' perspectives on how they would locate their institutes in terms of the models which I present.

In 1959, when I went to a Catholic Boarding School, we had Mass every day, prayers at night, and Rosary at 14:00hrs. Each class started with a prayer.

The school had crucifixes in almost every classroom. On weekends and feasts we had benediction and on some major Catholic feast days we had a free day. The teachers were mainly priests and all the teachers were Catholic. All the students were Catholic. It was a Catholic school in the tradition of those days whether in Ireland, United States, or Hong Kong. Such too were the early Catholic schools in Zambia-places like St. Mary's, Canisius, St. John's, St. Francis', St. Paul's and so forth.

I will use Arthur's term 'holistic' as a means of classifying the type of school which I have described. This model of the Catholic school speaks of the unifying vision of Christ, which is integrally bound up with the work of the Church. It demands that admissions be controlled to safeguard the religious identity of the school. It includes non-Catholics but limits their number.

There is a specifically Catholic Religious Education programme. Moreover, attempts were made to understand each subject from the Catholic perspective. The secular curriculum is imbued with Catholic

beliefs and values. The school is encouraged to integrate the Catholic faith with contemporary culture. This essentially describes the Catholic private school even today in Zambia.

When I began to teach in Canisius in the early 1970s, I came to what was a Jesuit school. I assumed that it would resemble the school I had attended. Canisius' staff had priests, brothers, and predominantly Catholic teachers but it had large numbers of students who were not Catholics. There were prayers before class. Catholic students had to attend Mass on Sundays while others, the non-Catholics, had their own services.

The Religious Education syllabus was not entirely Catholic and had been introduced in an experimental way and it was something of a half-way house between Catholic and non-Catholic. The situation that I describe came about in the aided schools mainly because of Government policies on admissions, which heavily emphasised academics.

Though it was a Catholic school, its secular and sacred dimensions tended to be separate. The academic activity of teaching classes and especially of preparing for examinations generally had pride of place in the curriculum.

Religious activities operated, but school liturgies and religious clubs had a somewhat separate existence from the main school events such as assemblies and classroom work. Little concerted and intentional attempts were made to see the secular subjects like Geography, civics, history, or science from a Catholic perspective. Religious Education itself was quietly joining the academic parade. This roughly fits Arthur's dualistic model.

Schools like Canisius and St. Francis that had started as holistic in the 1950s had thus moved towards being dualistic by the mid-1970s. In some ways, vestiges of the dualistic model still survive.

When teachers at the August Assembly of Catholic teachers were asked if efforts were being made to integrate the religious and academic dimensions of their institutes, 33% of the 36 teachers answered 'no.' Moreover, Religious Education has become entirely non-denominational since the 1970s.

Today, however, it is likely that Catholic-aided schools approximate Arthur's 'pluralistic' model. Such a model functions when students and staff come from different Churches. Religious Education is multi-faith or interdenominational. Single-faith schools may even be perceived to be narrow and divisive.

Evangelising is not permitted. Clearly the match between Catholic-aided schools in Zambia and Arthur's 'pluralistic' model is not complete. Generally, Zambian Catholic-aided schools are not perceived to be narrow and divisive nor are they forbidden to evangelise. It is true that evangelising is restricted both in and out of the classroom.

Nonetheless, most Zambian Catholic aided schools have Catholic clubs including catechumenate groups while some require staff and students to attend Mass on certain occasions. Catholic schools present themselves as Catholic but with shades of pluralism which are expressed under the umbrella of 'Christian.'

Through the 1980s, Catholic schools' proprietors began to question the efficacy and appropriateness of this new somewhat 'pluralistic' model of school. The situation was not always seen to be satisfactory.

Thus a number of steps were taken. In some cases, efforts were made to re-adopt the holistic model. Authorities desired to restrict student intake with more selective staffing to restore or enhance the Catholic ethos. However, with a large student body who were non-Catholic and with limited freedom of selection, they could not easily return to demanding that all attend daily or weekly Mass and that, among other things, the Religious Education programme become Catholic again.

The holistic model was now unrealistic even though it still remained the guiding ideal put forward by the official Church for the Catholic school where this was possible as for instance in private schools. In other instances, attempts were made to create a more deliberate and appropriate form of pluralism.

To break down the secular-sacred as well as the denominational divide, ecumenical services were arranged where awareness of a unified Christian as distinct from Catholic vision was stressed. Awareness of the need and value of forming an ecumenical community still varies considerably among schools.

Yet, there seems to be an emerging sense of the importance of moving in this direction in view of the need to prepare students for a global village where Muslim, Jew, and Christian move and work side-by-side.

At the August Assembly mentioned already, 36 teachers were surveyed after a session where the various models that have been outlined were explained.

When asked which model best described their institution, 95% chose the pluralistic model. Some 47% felt that their school/college/institute should however become even more pluralistic while 19% felt that they should become more holistic. At the same time, 95% also noted that they supported limiting the number of non-Catholic students and teachers at Catholic settings in an effort to retain or regain a more clear-cut Catholic ethos.

This finding might seem at variance with the desire to become more pluralistic. What it may reflect is that there are two directions which teachers want, namely, schools that are open to the world of today and its needs for broad minded individuals, but also schools which should include solid Catholic formation for those who are Catholics.

As the situation stands with roughly 37% Catholic student body and 45% staff in the aided institutions, many teachers regard as unsatisfactory the Catholic formation and care for both staff and students such as it now is in the aided Catholic schools.

As we have noted, the concept and reality of the aided Catholic school has changed considerably over the past thirty years. Its current role as a grant-aided institution in Zambia needs clearer articulation if it is not to become either too open to contemporary culture in its desire to be more pluralistic or too reactionary in its yearning to be Catholic.

Zambia's context challenges us to provide a further model of Catholic school that is pluralistic (not a seminary) but which does more justice to being called Catholic than at present appears to be the case.