The National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) is on the search for Jacinta Collins’ successor after almost a decade of leading Australian Catholic education through a period of uncertainty to one of confidence in its future and mission.
The executive secretary to the Bishops Commission for Education and chief executive officer of the NCEC is looking forward to focusing more on her family life when she retires in the new year.
She has certainly earned a break from a long career; beginning as a social worker and welfare officer, followed by years of public service before her current role.
In August, announcing her decision to step down, Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP, who chairs the Bishops Council for Catholic Education, and Nicholas Moore AO, chair of the NCEC, richly praised her navigation of a complex school system, her advocacy for Catholic education and leading role in major school funding reforms.
“Unapologetically Catholic in both public and private engagements, Jacinta is a model of lay leadership for future leaders in Catholic education,” they said.
Sitting in her city office overlooking St Patrick’s at Church Hill, she says it’s rewarding to know her colleagues would rather she not retire.
Jacinta devoted more than two decades to public service as a Labor Senator for Victoria, including terms as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister – at a time when female leadership in public life was novel – before leading Catholic education nationally.
She played a key role in the Gonski school education reforms and was a strong supporter of funding for all schools.
At the NCEC Jacinta has staunchly advocated on behalf of 1755 Catholic schools and 700 early childcare centres, more than 820,000 students and about 112,000 education staff.
Since accepting the role in 2017 she has navigated Catholic education through a period of profound challenges.
Her first task was to implement a new $4.3 billion funding agreement, a complex and often controversial process. She also had to rebuild the NCEC itself, which at the time was a small organisation battling high staff turnover.
“Establishing stability, unity, and advocacy was critical,” she says.
Unity has been a recurring theme and she says her role required tolerance for diversity, courage in taking and explaining positions, and the ability to maintain strong relationships amid disagreement in an increasingly contested society.
Difficult conversations continue to be necessary around questions of religious discrimination in faith-based schools for example. But these, she believes, strengthen the system.
Jacinta took up the role as the church was still reeling from the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The bishops, she says, “were very much in the bunker, dealing with the public backlash.”
She’s observed them grow in confidence while working closely with them to shape national initiatives, such as the 2021 Bishops’ Charter for Catholic Education and the “Created and Loved” guidelines on gender identity.
The latter, released in 2022, was one of the first documents of its kind in the world and was later adopted by other Christian denominations and bishops’ conferences.
For many Australians, Catholic schools remain their most visible point of contact with the church and Jacinta has sought to frame that as an opportunity for mission.
“Some priests used to say, ‘churches are empty but schools are full,’ as though that was a problem,” she says.
“I turned that on its head. If you want to evangelise, why wouldn’t you start with the wealth of resources we already have in Catholic education?”
Catholic schools, she says, are not only to be providers of quality education but “the primary means by which the church transmits faith to the next generation.”
She credits her own life’s mission to a combination of her family upbringing, Catholic schooling, and exposure to Catholic social teaching through her involvement as a young woman in the Labor movement.
“It was formative, combining faith and reason, and seeing faith expressed in social action,” she reflects, adding that later study in bioethics and theology deepened her thinking.
Her daily work at the NCEC has enriched her practice of the faith, and prayer, for her, takes many forms.
“Working closely with bishops and being more a part of the liturgical life of the church, have all been significant experiences for me,” she says.
“When I’m on planes I listen to a playlist I’ve developed, and that becomes a kind of meditation. And pilgrimage has been very powerful – I joined Archbishop Anthony on a trip to the Holy Land, which was deeply moving.”
Jacinta hopes a successor will go on to continue to build unity and advocate strongly for Catholic education, as “the work is never finished.”
But she is content that the sector is in a stronger position than when she began.
“We’re less under siege now. We’ve fought for funding fairness, navigated the challenges of the pandemic, and can look to the future with confidence,” she says.
Recruitment is already well under way for a new executive director.
“When I stepped into this position it had been vacant for 13 months so I’m hoping it won’t be that long this time.”
