When nine Catholic school principals and teachers traveled to the Diocese of Nsukka, Nigeria, in March with Esther Hicks of the Office of Catholic Schools, they brought their experience and expertise with them. When they returned home nine days later, participants said they brought back a new understanding of faith and joy. The educators visited Nsukka to learn about the diocese’s fledgling Catholic school system and figure how they can best help with archdiocese’s partnership with it. Hicks, the director of Catholic school identity and mission for the archdiocese, helped form the partnership four years ago and has visited Nsukka seven times since then. Model school So far, the main goal of the partnership is to develop a model school in Nsukka that would serve students from three years old through college, and incorporate a teachers’ college to educate the diocese’s future educators. Catholic schools in the Chicago archdiocese are encouraged to participate in “Dollars for Dreams,” raising money for the model school and to help with other needs in the schools. “Their resources are so very, very limited,” said Vito DeFrisco, principal at St. Hubert School in Hoffman Estates. “But there is such faith and such joy. They are joyful people.” “It was a terrific opportunity to meet extraordinary people,” said Stephanie Clausell, principal at St. Ailbe School on the South Side of Chicago. “Their wealth is in their spiritual lives.” Limited resources The educators visited some 16 schools in a week in Nsukka. The schools they saw in some ways looked very different from the schools they lead in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Most have no electricity or running water, some have dirt floors, some are nothing but a roof. While some have individual desks, others seat students on benches. A lack of books means much of the learning is done by rote, with the students repeating or writing down a teacher’s words. St. Joseph Sister Barbara Jean Ciszek, principal at Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Early Learning Center, said some of the nursery school classrooms — for 3- and 4- year-olds — had 45 students with one teacher. “They were all very happy to be there and to have the chance to go to school,” Ciszek said. “They really value education.” DeFrisco, who shared stories and pictures from his visit with his students, said they were most interested in the similarities, being surprised to find out that Nsukka students also wear uniforms, and quickly recognizing pictures from Sunday Mass. Mass “just like us” “They said, ‘They have Mass just like us,’” DeFrisco said. “That’s really the point. We’re far more alike than different, even though they have a different way of life.” The Catholic schools in Nsukka also face similar challenges, said Hicks. For years, there were no Catholic schools in that area of Nigeria, after the government took over all the Catholic institutions after the Biafran War in the early 1970s. The diocese recently got permission to take some of those schools back, and to open new schools, but it is doing so with very little government support. Parents are charged tuition to help support the schools — usually around $30 a year, plus uniform and material fees, Hicks said — but parents cannot pay enough to cover all the costs. The diocese now has about 40 schools, most of them at the nursery and primary levels. Students must pass governmentmandated exams each year to advance to the next level, Hicks said, and the Catholic school students outperform their peers in government schools. Ciszek, who is a trainer of Montessori teachers, said the hands-on style will not work in classrooms of 45 children, but when the model school is built, some Montessori practices could be incorporated. Valuing education Clausell said that when she has spoken with St. Ailbe students about the trip, she tells them what she found when she met with students in Nsukka. “They want to go to school,” she said. “And they want to do well.” The teachers, she said, are highly respected professionals, and they always dress beautifully. The students come to school clean and neat and ready to learn. “They really value their education,” Ciszek said. For DeFrisco, the trip was lifechanging. “I was hoping to provide something to them, but in reality, they gave me far more than I could give them,” he said. “They are incredibly faithful people. They were so gracious and so welcoming and it was very refreshing.”