By NewsBits
Some students of Claret Academy Secondary School, which is located in Area ‘A’ New Owerri in Imo State, Southeast Nigeria arrived the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja on Tuesday aboard Air Peace Airlines in the company of their leader, Rev Fr Ernest Offor, CMF.
NewsBits gathered that the students numbering about eight are in Abuja to participate in the International Conference organised by City-Mun United Nation (UN) International Conference, which holds in Abuja from (today) June 7 to 11, 2023. The conference, it was further learnt was designed to give the young students the opportunity to play the role of ambassadors of the United Nation especially in solving global problems.
There is no gainsaying that the world is in dire need of role models and morally upright global citizens. Presently from one end of the world to the other, it does appear that the world, which has become a global village due to advancement in science and technology is currently bedevilled with all sorts of challenges that are against natural courses that are contributing heavily to derailing the morality of students using different channels, especially the social media.
Apparently aware of these dangers, the management of Claret Academy have decided to chart a new partway, which would experientially channel the energy of their students to different positive areas of human endeavour that would help build their moral, social, and academic aspects of their upbringing as good global citizens.
The Claret Academy is a catholic mission educational institute established, organized, and directly administered by the East Province of the Religious Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, otherwise known as the Claretian Missionaries. The academy was formally opened in September 1998 as a nursery/primary school under the insightful leadership of Very Rev. Fr. Godwin Okechukwu Nzeh, Cmf; the then Provincial Superior.
It would be recalled that the title “Claret Academy” was chosen because of the intended plan of the province to establish with time a full-fledged educational institution that will cover the various levels of education – nursery/primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, with perhaps different campuses in several places in Nigeria. The aim of this educational institute is to impart knowledge and balanced education to the young at all levels and to contribute to the developmental effort of the Catholic Church and the Nigerian government in the formation of children and the youth in Nigeria and beyond.
The school is a co-educational school, owned by the Claretian Missionaries, and located in the highbrow area of Owerri the Imo State capital. Claret Academy operates both day and boarding arrangements, and admission into various classes for the 2023/2024 academy year is also ongoing. The admission form is currently on sale, just as interested students can indeed visit www.claretedu.org or info@claretedu.org or contact Rev Fr Ernest Offor, CMF for details.
The vision of Claretian educational apostolate is to provide for our pupils and students an academic environment where they will not only gain needed knowledge, but also where they will encounter Jesus Christ and learn to love and live as He taught us, as a people of peace and joy. Our target is to offer our youth a balanced and holistic education that forms them into polished and responsible human beings, useful to themselves, their families and society at large. Based on the above vision, our educational apostolate is guided by the following principles:
i. Courage to be Christian: The reason de ‘tri’ of our Educational Apostolate is our commitment to the people of God arising out of our consecration to the person of Christ lived through our Claretian Missionary identity and values. We are not abashed gto confess that we are Catholics, Christians, a people of God with a mandate to fulfill for your children, those words of our Lord: “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them.” Hence, in our apostolate, we shall courageously proclaim our identity as Christian Missionaries through our life witness, visible signs, and symbols.
ii. Holistic Human Formation: Our Educational Apostolate goes beyond the prescribed curriculum, affirming the integrity of the human person as a physical psychological, social, moral, and spiritual unity. Claretian education seeks to provide an integral and holistic formation that covers the five layers of human existence, mentioned above.
iii. Value-oriented Education: Education in our institute is based on, directed and oriented to universal principles and values. Hence knowledge is processed and imparted to the students as wisdom for leading ethically sound lives.
iv. Education for Leadership: Our Educational Apostolate seeks to educate the youths of today for taking up exemplary and value-based leadership roles in the society for the creation of a civilization of love.
v. Respectful Relationality: A human being lives in a matrix of relationality – with God, fellow human beings, with oneself. Claretian education focuses on training young people for respectful relationality and mutual enhancement. It facilitates cultural tolerance, religious harmony, and peaceful co-existent.
vi. Formation of Committed Citizens: Claretian educational institutions seek to form citizens with conviction, commitment, enthusiasm, and sense of responsibility so that they make the world a better place for one another and for the generations to come.
vii. Social and Economic Justice: Claretian educational endeavours are sensitive to social and economic justice and works towards the promotion of the same. In their recruitment, admission policies and training, Claretian institutions seek to empower the socially and economically marginalized groups.
