DHAKA (UCAN) -- Administrators and teachers of Catholic institutions learned about Church social teachings and a new national student-assessment system at a three-day biennial national convention.

"I feel the convention was necessary," Sister Mary Ashish told UCA News on Feb. 2. "We have been updated with new rules and regulations, and social concerns of the Church. And we have also learned about the upcoming new national educational system," explained the assistant headmistress of Solepur High School.

The Mary, Queen of Apostles nun was one of 115 participants at the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 National Education Convention 2008, organized by the Episcopal Commission for Christian Education of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bangladesh. Integrated Education to Transform Society was the theme.

Most participants were heads or teachers of high schools and colleges the Catholic Church runs in Bangladesh. Members of diocesan education commissions also attended.

According to Father Benjamin Costa, secretary of the bishops' education commission, the Church's social doctrine mandates teaching in the light of the Good News. Amid social, political, and economic changes, he stressed, the Church must teach values, especially in the areas of family life, human dignity and human rights.

The Holy Cross priest told UCA News on Feb. 7 that presenters called on the attending principals and head teachers of Church-run schools to study the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, which he noted has been translated into Bangla, or Bengali.

In general, the convention urged the educators to focus on "Catholic values, human dignity and a pro-life approach," he said. "Education is not just passing and failing. It should also include values we should uphold."

Father Costa, principal of Notre Dame College in Dhaka, also said two officials from the Dhaka Education Board, under the government education ministry, spoke to participants about the new educational system, slated for implementation in 2010.

In the new system, Father Costa explained, 70 percent of assessment for grades will be based on academic performance, while the remaining 30 percent will be based on behavior, attitude, leadership and other human qualities. In his view the new system will help students develop a logic-based thought process.

The convention provided training in this new system, which uses structured questions that the priest said are designed to encourage creative thinking, unlike the approach in the rote-memory system that has been in place.

Participants also took part in spiritual reflections, daily Mass and sharing on Church social teachings.

According to Jyoti F. Gomes, director of the Formation of Youth and Teachers' Programme of Caritas Bangladesh, the Catholic Church runs about 500 primary schools, 60 high schools and junior high schools, and three colleges in the country. Caritas is the local Church's social service organization.

Gomes said that apart from the national conventions held every two years, each of the country's six dioceses conducts annual programs for updating and renewing educators through spiritual reflection and sharing on contemporary education.

Archbishop Paulinus Costa of Dhaka held up Saint Don Bosco, founder of the Salesians, as a model for educators today. He called on teachers to follow the saint's loving example "so that youths can find shelters of love" in them.

Holy Cross Brother Subol Lawrence Rozario, headmaster of St. Philip's High School in Dinajpur, about 400 kilometers northwest of Dhaka, told UCA News the convention topics were "very relevant and timely."

Brother Rozario, also founder and chaplain of the National Catholic Teachers' Teams movement, said that apart from having guidance from the Church, such gatherings also offer opportunities to express solidarity and renew knowledge on contemporary education-related issues.

The government has already begun training programs on its new assessment system for schoolteachers, which will be done gradually.

On the second day of the convention, participants traveled to Panjora, 35 kilometers northeast of Dhaka, for the first Mass of the annual feast there dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. Then they went about eight kilometers further, to Bhadun village, for a spiritual reflection led by Holy Cross Auxiliary Bishop Theotonius Gomes of Dhaka.

"Apart from sharing on academic issues," Sister Ashish said, "the spiritual reflection on the second day enriched our personal lives and encouraged us to dedicate ourselves more towards educating children."

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