By Godwin Abedican

Arua  

With the education institutions under the diocese of Arua continuing to rise in number, many community members join to study in these institutions without any religious restrictions.

As part of the practices to ensure the learners in the schools under the diocese as the foundation body grow up with  good catholic morals and knowledge of the catholic church, a number of catholic movements are established in these schools that the learners choose to join based on their interest. But, these movements and associations in the schools are struggling to cope up with their activities and enrollment of learners in to them as a result of the religious differences in the various schools under the diocese.

The heads of these religious movements in the schools under the diocese are therefore concerned over this saying it is greatly affecting the participation of learners in the activities of these movements in the various schools.

During a session on animating of religious associations and movements for the matrons, patrons and in charges of religious affairs in schools under the diocese, in the ongoing education week organized by the diocesan education office, taking place at Arua technical school Ragem, the teachers noted that, this has subsequently affected discipline levels in the schools as well as the spiritual life of the students.

While narrating his experience, James Mawadri Edema, the head teacher Lokwa primary school in Moyo district says, most of the schools as a result of mixed religion have some stake holders who want to dictate over what should and should not take place in the schools. “When I was in Obongi, in 2018, I tried to bring the idea of celebrating mass in the schools, particularly catholic founded schools it didn’t go well with some people from other religions especially the Muslim.

In my school, I organized a mass with the parish priest, after celebrating the mass, the school PTA chairperson, a Muslim came questioning me as to why I organized mass at the school, and yet when you look at the foundation of this school, it’s a catholic founded school,”  he said.

Jenifer Amandu, the in charge religious affairs at Ragem primary school says, some institutions in the diocese do not even give room for core catholic practices which is also a contributing factor to their failure in schools. “If you look at some of these activities of the catholic faith, most especially the Rosary, having or owning a rosary and praying the rosary in all the catholic founded schools is supposed to be done by all the catholic children. But the problem is when you initiate it, inter-religion comes in and even some of our schools that could easily do this don’t value Rosary prayers, and so the question is, how will we address this at school level to ensure that we don’t inter religious affairs are well catered for” Amandu asked.    
 
Meanwhile, according to Geoffrey Dramadri a teacher from St. Joseph’s college Ombaci, some of the failure of movements in the catholic founded schools are as a result of leadership gaps and differences in these schools.

Dramadri however, calls upon in charges to put extra efforts behind these associations or movements such that they can be revamped and made fully active. “For many of these movements to work in the schools, first of all requires the input of the people who are in charge of these associations or movements. We may throw issues about this here and there but, if you are put in charge of theses associations, how the association performs will depend on your personal commitment. Sometimes, these associations or movements exist in schools by names. For example, many schools have YCS, but you go on ground, the impact of YCS is not felt and yet there is a patron or matron for this movement. So, it sometimes requires our personal initiative or efforts to ensure that some if these activities by the associations run,” Dramadri urged.

As the religious differences in many schools greatly affects these movements, one Muslim founded school, Arua secondary school has been appreciated and pointed out as a leading figure among the schools that creates equal ground for all the religious groups and has given ample space for the operations of the catholic movements in the school.

While speaking to Radio Pacis, Rashid Anguzu, the head teacher Arua secondary school says, preventing students from practicing their faith affects learning greatly as it creates a discomfort to them. “As human beings, some of these differences are just earthly things and time will come when we shall leave them and so we think there is no need to stop someone from practicing what they want. For us the issue is the different faiths have the right to do what they are supposed to do so long as they are not against the school rules and regulations.

For us here, what happens on Fridays is that, it’s our fellowship day, on this day the Muslims go for their Jummah prayers and we have created rooms for the catholic if they feel like calling someone maybe a priest or catechist, to come and lead for them prayers, we don’t interfere. We also have room for the Anglican students under Scripture union who are also free to do the same. Having these in the school has done a lot in shaping the learners in terms of their behavior and strengthened the implementation of the school rules and regulations,” Rashid explained.


Rev Fr. William Andima during an interview with Radio Pacis

Responding to these concerns, Rev. Fr. William Andima, the youth chaplain Arua diocese who facilitated the session of the animating the religious associations and movements in schools said, parents should be very keen on where they take their children to learn such that their religious aspirations are not shuttered. “In all these institutions the learners are of different religions and I am sure that in these schools there is someone who is appointed as the in charge of the movements even if it’s not a catholic founded school.  That’s why there are catholic communities. These teachers should be able to close the gap between the school and the church through the children and explain the truth about the faith and associations or movements to the school administration, he appealed.

About the challenges caused by catholic teachers that are affecting these movements, the chaplain says, teachers should learn that they are an example to the earners. “Before someone became a teacher he or she was a catholic. A teacher should not only be giving academic knowledge but also the spiritual lesson and be able to support but not sabotage the programs and support other teachers in what to do.” Fr. Andima urged.

Among the commonly known movements in the schools include Young Christian Students (YCS) and legion of Mary while others such as CCR have not taken deep root in the schools.

COVER PHOTO: Rev. Fr. William Andima speaking to the Animators, Patrons and Matrons during the session By Godwin Abedican