THE EVALUATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE CURRICULUM
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Study’s Background
Western culture was introduced by nineteenth-century missionaries.
Nigerian education in 1842 (Fafunwa, 1977; Ilori, 1994). Religion was the primary focus of this education’s curriculum. To fully implement this content, adequate attention was paid to understanding the meaning and role of God in people’s lives.
The missionaries prioritized God in the establishment of their schools because they understood that a man without religion is no better than a dangerous animal, and that a child who has no fear of God will have no respect for his elders (Obuna, 1993).
The main goal of the various missionary organizations was to produce people who would be of service to the “colonial trinity” – the Church, the Government, and the firm. The catechism, reading passages from the Bible, and prayer books were the mainstays of that program’s body of knowledge. The body of knowledge in the missionary system, which lasted until and beyond Nigeria’s independence in 1960, was centered on catechism, Bible reading, and prayer books (Bray, 1981).
Religion, according to Ezeobata (1985), “still enjoyed a considerable pride of place in the curriculum” of Nigerian schools “up to, and even after, Nigeria’s independence.” However, after gaining political independence in 1960, there was a general outcry against the colonial educational system. Following independence, the weight of public opinion resulted in a series of National Curriculum reforms to redirect the course of Nigerian education in response to the people’s new needs and aspirations. Recognizing and addressing the perceived shortcomings of colonial educational policies in national development
As a result, post-independence educational programs have been influenced.
The Curriculum Conference of 1969 was a watershed moment in this regard. The conference outlined the national philosophy, goals, purposes, and objectives of Nigerian education in great detail, and recommended a national curriculum reform (Adaralegbe, 1972).
According to the needs of the society, a new set of goals such as self-realization, better human relationships, and national economic efficiency were identified (Taiwo, 1980), for both primary and secondary school levels. Among these goals, according to Taiwo (1980), are effective citizenship, national consciousness, national unity, social and political progress, and national reconstruction.
However, in recent times, heated debates have erupted in Nigeria over the teaching and learning of Christian Religious Knowledge as a school subject (Ezeobata, 1993). Some scholars have argued that religion has no practical educational value and should not be taught as an academic subject in schools (Njoku, 1987),
whereas others, such as Cox (1966) and Amana (1987), have argued that if religion must be taught, it must be taught in the form of comparative religion. This opposition has left its mark on Nigeria’s harmonized Religious Education syllabus, which was designed to teach Bible Knowledge (BK) with no moral content.
Some social analysts (Nduka, 1983; Obuna, 1993; & Ojukwu, 1994) believe that the near collapse of Religious Education and its attendant inadequacy in schools is one of the reasons for the government takeover of schools. They contended that this was not the case in the past, when Nigeria’s educational system was heavily religious.
The government takeover of missionary schools in the 1970s, on the other hand, appears to have started the genesis of the dwindling influence of religious values among youths. Obuna (1993) confirmed this point of view when he stated:
Our children were being groomed to be intellectual giants but spiritual dwarfs. As these intelligent children grew older, they were forced to create their own gods in order to fill the religious void. This is what has resulted in the establishment of secret societies, occult worship, and ritual sacrifices in our universities and other third-level institutions across the country today (p.25).
Obuna went on to say that in the majority of state-owned schools, the
Instead of being formed, children were “deformed,” and instead of imbibing the spirit of hard work, they imbibbed the spirit of strikes at the slightest provocation. This deformative tendency in schools gave rise to social ills such as bribery, corruption, intolerance, and so on, which now threaten our individual and corporate survival.
However, in keeping with international trends that were marked by innovations and transformations in Religious Education, Nigeria implemented curriculum reforms to reassess her religious education program at both the junior and secondary school levels.
These reforms resulted in the Christian Religious Knowledge Curriculum, which was implemented in April 1985. In recognition of the foregoing, and in search of a system that will contribute to good nation building, the study of Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK) has been given top priority in primary and junior secondary schools today.
According to this system, every pupil or student is expected to learn it for the 3-3 segments of the 6-3-3-4 educational system, which is known as “Christian Religious Knowledge,” at both the Junior and Senior secondary school levels.
When the Christian Religious Knowledge Curriculum was first introduced,
It was assumed that when it was implemented in 1985, it would instill in our young people the necessary and desired knowledge, values, behaviors, attitudes, and skills that would ensure their effective adaptation in an ever-changing multi-faith and multi-ethnic society such as Nigeria.
It was expected to include not only the Bible’s content but also moral lessons or instructions for the youth (Adewale, 1975). It was thought that teaching and learning the Bible would help Nigerian youth prepare for useful living within society, and that the CRK teacher could help the youths improve their morals and attitudes toward God, their fellow men, their work, and the nation as a whole.
Gaiya (1981) defines formalized formalized formalized formalized formalized formalized formalized formalized formal In accordance with this belief, the National Curriculum for Junior Secondary Schools (FME, 1985) mandated the following.
objectives:
NERDC/School Authority/Ministry of Education: The findings/recommendations presented in this study would be extremely beneficial to the aforementioned agencies/educational bodies. For example, the aforementioned education/research bodies would gather verifiable information regarding the variables that are critical to designing a holistic and all-encompassing CRK curriculum for Junior Secondary Schools, knowing the importance of such a curriculum in the life of the Nigerian child and society.
Society/Researchers/Scholars: The above-mentioned individuals in academia and society will greatly benefit from this study. While members of society would recognize the significance of good and effective curriculum implementation in CRK, scholars and researchers in the field would make objective reference to this study in their future research.
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