The National Catechetical Study (NCS) 2021

The National Catechetical Study 2016 (NCS 2016) is project of the CBCP- Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education commissioned to the UST Research Center on Culture, Education and Social Issues.

THE CONTEXT. The young today live in the midst of a deep economic, cultural and moral crisis. The Catechists are one of the most potent agents in the moral recovery program of the country. The CBCP Episcopal Commission on Catechesis and Catholic Education makes an effort to support the moral recovery program by helping the Catechists fulfill their ministry adequately in the Christian formation of our youth.

To ensure that the Catechists are adequately formed and fully prepared to journey with our youth in faith, particularly in the K-12 program in public schools, the Commission deemed it necessary to conduct a study on the quantity and quality of Catechists serving the country.

There had been catechetical researches conducted by the Commission in 1988 and in 1998. The 1998 survey reveals that 82.25 % of the 75 million Filipino population are Catholics. Of the Catholic population, the number of people in the workforce for the apostolate in the Philippines (statistics 1998) was 103,259 and 81. 37% (84,019) of which was composed of the Catechists. Twenty three years after the foregoing research, the Commission, with the hope to respond to the thrust of the Church for New Evangelization, recognizes the need to know the present state, in the national scope, of our catechetical ministry in terms of catechists’ profile and catechetical approaches as deemed relevant and appropriate to today’s highly technological-oriented youth.