History of Catholic Education
Though religion has always played some role in the education of Newfoundlanders, it is difficult to pinpoint when the first formal Catholic schooling took place on the island. We know there were Roman Catholic clergy at the French colony of Plaisance between 1680 and 1713 and can assume that they would have provided some form of schooling, given the roles of clergy in other French colonies. Despite this reference, formal instruction would have been very uncommon prior to the nineteenth century, but it would be a mistake to conclude people were not being educated by other means, such as through apprenticeship.
As the permanent population of the island expanded, it became increasingly apparent to the established churches that education would be a way of ensuring the practice of faith in the next generation. Parents also grew aware that education was means of improving their family’s social and economic standing. Accordingly, religious denominations sought out ways to provide educational opportunities for members of their congregations.
In 1823 the Benevolent Irish Society opened a charity school in St. John’s to educate the growing number of poverty-stricken children in the city. The school, which came to be known as the Orphan Asylum School, was originally intended to be non-denominational and deliberately forbade religious instruction. Nevertheless, the school came to be used almost exclusively by Roman Catholics and Bishop Anthony Fleming began after hour religious instruction. Of great concern to Bishop Fleming was the government’s refusal to help the Orphan Asylum financially, despite the fact that it was the islands largest school and other denominational schools were receiving government support.
“The Act for the Encouragement of Education” was passed by the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1836. It supported the policy of funding non-denominational schools and offered financial support to existing schools. Bishop Fleming felt that this act left Roman Catholics, who now made up about half of the island’s population, at a disadvantage. He was determined to establish a distinct Catholic Education system and had made arrangements for several teaching sisters from the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Galway Ireland, to travel to St. John’s. The Sisters were to open a Catholic school for girls and put an end to co-education in the province. One month after the sisters arrived they had set up a girls school in the city with high enrollment. The Orphan Asylum was converted to a boy’s school.
With the success of the Presentation Sisters in St. John’s, Fleming looked once again to Ireland in 1839 and invited the Mercy Sisters to come teach on the island. It was Fleming’s intent that these sisters teach secondary school for girls and expand the Catholic education system. Together with the Presentation and Mercy Sisters, the schools under the care of the Catholic Church became widely known for their exceptional teaching standards especially in the areas of Foreign Language and Music.
In 1842 a new Education Act was passed that divided the grant for schools evenly between Roman Catholics and Protestants. John V. Nugent, a Roman Catholic teacher was appointed Newfoundland’s first school inspector, but not without controversy. In the years that followed, particularly between 1845 and 1874, the population of the province grew at a considerable rate. The provincial denominational school systems had difficulty keeping up the growing numbers of children entering school. In 1858 the Act for the Encouragement of Education appointed two separate school inspectors; Michael J. Kelly as the Roman Catholic inspector and John Haddon for Protestant schools. The inspectors were charged with the evaluation of teachers and pupils, the physical conditions of schoolrooms and the gathering of education statistics.
With the population growing, the Catholic school system was relying more and more on lay teachers for instruction in the Orphan Asylum. In 1847 Fleming recruited four Franciscan brothers from Ireland to teach at the school and enrollment grew considerably. The brothers remained at the Orphan Asylum, and even took on a seminary and boarding school called St. Bonaventure’s. Nevertheless the brothers returned to Ireland four years later for unknown reasons.
By 1876 the Irish Christian Brothers had been recruited to take over teaching duties at the Old Orphan Asylum, which was renamed St. Patrick’s Hall school. In 1889 the Brothers were also put in charge of St. Bon’s, with Brother J.L.Slattery as principal. A major influence in the field of education, Slattery was concerned with creating a standard in education across the denominations. Due partly to his influence, The Council for Higher Educati
on (C.H.E) was implemented in 1893. The C.H.E established common external exams for grade 6 and higher and encouraged students of all denominations to strive for excellence by offering incentives such as scholarships. As you might expect, the common exams led to more cooperation in the developing of curriculum across the denominations.
As Newfoundland approached the twentieth century, there were about 35,000 students enrolled in 783 schools across the island and a new Superintendent of Roman Catholic Schools. Vincent P. Burke was appointed Superintendent at 21 years of age. Passionate about professional development and accustomed to regular consultations between denominations, Burke was fresh and innovative. By 1916 there were about 346 Roman Catholic Schools and 53 Catholic school boards, all under his care. Each board was responsible for visiting and maintaining schools, prescribing courses and textbooks and appointing teachers.
Under the administration of Sir Richard A. Squires, the Department of Education was created in 1920. Arthur Barnes was appointed minister and Vincent Burke deputy minister. The following years brought many changes to education. Cuts to educational grants plagued the 1930’s as the government struggled to avoid bankruptcy. There were also changes in curriculum, new curriculum stressed areas such as Social Education, Health and institutional training.
By the mid twentieth century, it was obvious that the province’s education system needed to be brought up to date. There was “…little to distinguish itself from its predecessor of fifty or sixty years earlier. There was no electricity and therefore no lighting except in the very few instances where kerosene lamps were used. The schools were almost invariably constructed of wood, and were heated by wood or coal stoves. There was no water supply either for drinking or sanitation. Proper ventilation was non-existent, as were school libraries, gymnasiums and laboratory facilities” Rowe 1976. Too many schools stretched resources to their breaking point. Often even the smallest communities had several schools for children of different denominations. In 1949 the majority of the islands schools were one-room schoolhouses. Many teachers had a mere one year (or less) post-secondary education and it was common for students to leave school before age 14.