CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Recently over the world, argument have
been seeping into mainstream media for the removal of Christian
religious studies in schools even where majority of residents are
apparently Christian. With religious questionings and growing number of
people claiming atheism coupled with the manifestations of religious
extremism, a lot of people including legislators are beginning to
consider the removal of Christian religious studies from primary and
secondary schools curriculum. In some freer countries like the united
states, this has gone past the stage of arguments, counterarguments and
considerations. Legislatures have passed bills for the removal of the
subject and it’s implementation has taken place so that teachers who
suggest the subject in the courses of their lessons stand the chances of
losing their jobs.
In Nigeria, especially at a time when
religious extremism and economic repression the argument usually bother
along the lines of what could religious studies favour the child with in
such a time. And to allocate more resources to the sciences, Christian
religious studies always comes off lowest and consequently is usually
the one to the scrapped off the budge.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
As a follow up to the background
provided above, Christian religious studies, when it isn’t seen as one
of the remote causes of religious extremism and intolerance, is seen as a
very unserious subject especially at primary and secondary schools and
sometimes at tertiary levels; one whose advocacy is only informed by
religious sentiment and does not contribute to the overall development
of the child through adulthood.
However, such an argument, both of the
negative influence of the subject and that of its irrelevance are not
founded on statistics and long thorough research. It is this
presumptuous undertone which has informed the attitude of millenial and
their wards against Christian religious studies that is the problem that
the present research work aims at treating.
1.3 Research Questions
1.3.1 How relevant is the study of the Christian religion.
1.3.2 How much does it influence students at higher institution of learning.
1.3.3 What percentage of the
positive impact of Christian religious studies in higher institution of
learning outweighs that of it’s shortcomings.
1.4 Objectives of the Study
This research hopes to logically look at
the impact of Christian religious studies in the higher institute of
learning. This is to be achieved by identifying and discussing at length
the various impacts of the subject. As mentioned earlier, the almost
negative stance of legislators, parents and some teachers against the
subject are informed by an unresearched understanding that the subject
can in some ways instigate extremist tendencies in the children at
higher institute levels. This research will achieve a total
reorientation by pursuing the following objectives:
1.4.1 to do a statistical research on the impact of Christian religious studies in tertiary institutions.
1.4.2 Discuss these various impacts in full along with all the sociocultural factors that bring them into being.
1.4.3 Reconcile the uninformed assumptions about the subject in the educational curriculum.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study sheds a clear light on the
immediate and remote impacts of Christian religious studies in the
higher institutions of learning in Kwali arear council. It also gives
insights on how these impacts can actually help in shaping the minds of
the students to he more tolerant of other people’s religions. As Dr
Gareth Byrne posits:
The current critique of denominational
education, and of denominational religious education in particular,
risks undermining the place of this core subject in all schools, just at
a moment when deeper reflection on religion, belief, spirituality and
ethics could contribute enormously to the emergence of a society that
seeks to embrace difference and is comfortable to celebrate the presence
of a variety of religious and other belief systems.(The Irish Times)
1.6 Research Hypothesis
This research work is born on the
assumption that the teaching of Christian religious studies is impactful
on students of higher institutes of learning and that these impacts are
more or less positive ones.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This research, studying the impacts of
Christian religious studies in higher institute of learning, focuses
only on the this impact as manifested in Kwali area council. From the
results of this research one can do a reading of other areas with
similar topography as the council.
The study will discuss the various
impacts in details but more emphasis on the thrown on the most immediate
impacts especially the ones peculiar to the area council.
For the above reason, the chapter
distribution will be tailored to shine better light on and divide the
fourth chapter into two sections: the positive impacts and the negative
ones.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
The limitations of this work borders
between spatial factors to accommodate the bulk of impacts of the issue
and time factors that could not allow for an extensive engagement of the
research object.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Christian Religious Studies
This is a subject in the Nigerian
primary and secondary schools curricula which aims at teaching children
morals based on the Christian Bible.