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KSC Education Foundation
The Building of Christian Values - Now and for the Future
There can be few more important priorities today than ensuring that our young people receive a quality education. For it is they who hold the key to the successful development of Australia and the continuance and growth of our faith.
It not enough for our education system just to produce good doctors, or good lawyers, or good businessmen. The very lives of those people must be founded upon a set of values, Christian values, which ensure that they carry out their chosen professions with integrity, compassion and justice.
Our Catholic education process is dedicated to serve the Catholic community by giving our children a Christian-valued based direction. For this to happen there must be a constant supply of teachers able to deliver religious education at all levels in our schools. Quality teaching staff are the lifeblood of our system and an essential component in shaping the future. It is an objective of the Church to ensure the higher education and training of Catholic teachers in the tenets and practice of their faith.
In an Address to the Order of the Knights of the Southern Cross in April 1990, the Most Rev. W.J Foley, Catholic Archbishop of Perth said:
“It is clear to say that if we are going to persist with a top class education system, we have got to reach more of our undergraduate teachers, offer better postgraduate units, and achieve it, if possible, within a Catholic ethos”. The membership of our Order agreed that we should respond – that we would collectively strive to establish a “living legacy of support” for Faith education and the church throughout WA.
The Challenge Before Us
The Order and the Church have identified that fundamental to the preservation and continuation of the Catholic Faith, will be the quality and degree of religious education afforded our young people.
The responsibility for faith education or religious teaching within our schools was for many years, conducted largely by various Orders. This has left lay people with the challenge of providing the intellectual and spiritual development of our young people which, in turn has placed two key demands on our education system.
1. Catholic schools require teachers who are properly versed in,
and able to teach religious studies as part of their duties.
2. It has become our collective responsibility, we members of the
Catholic faith and community, to ensure there is an
environment and infrastructure that provides this religious education.
The Order of the Knights of the Southern Cross established an Education Foundation, which is charged with providing scholarships to help train the very best teachers possible for the Catholic Education System in Western Australia. |
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Initially, the Foundation Appeal was set well on course thanks largely to the outstanding fundraising efforts of the committee, and with the generous support of specific Order Members. The Foundation is responsible for funding scholarships in the Colleges of Theology and Education at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Western Australia, at Fremantle and Broome.
Every university offers education for its students, however: the University has accepted a heavy responsibility - to ensure that its religious education graduates are fully equipped to enter the Catholic education system and carry out the mission of the Church.
Through this commitment, we will secure the highest standard of religious educators and education for our children and grandchildren - affording them a well rounded, Christian-based learning experience, and ensure the ongoing development of the Catholic Faith.
Foundation Overview and Objectives
The KSC Education Foundation is not limited to just Perth and surrounds.
The Foundation extends and offers support across the State - to every Catholic teacher and to every Catholic school.
The Foundation is a project of the KSC, and is managed by a Trustee with board members appointed from within the membership and from the Church community as a whole.
The Foundation has drawn on the skills, experience and reputation of respected business people, community leaders, and Catholic Education representatives to establish a group committed to maximising performance, whilst doing so in an ethical and professional manner.
Applying for Scholarships
Scholarships are advertised through the Catholic Education Office Website, The Record and applications are sent to all Catholic Schools during the last quarter of each year. Applications are received by this Office and, if established all criteria has been meet, are forwarded to Catholic Education Office for processing then returned to this Office. All successful Scholarship recipients are notified by mail.
Applications are available through Catholic Education Office and this Office.
Supporting the KSC Education Foundation
If you would like to consider supporting the Foundation either by way of a donation or a bequest please contact the KSC Office on 9470 4922. Donations to the Foundation are tax deductible as a gift to charity. No matter the size of your gift, every dollar makes a difference. In this way your support for Faith and the Church continues, as your “living legacy”.
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