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THE EVALUATION OF IMPLEMENTATION OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE CURRICULUM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

The nineteenth century missionaries introduced western

education in Nigeria in 1842 (Fafunwa, 1977; Ilori, 1994). The major curriculum content of this education was religion.  In order to implement this content fully, adequate attention was given to understanding the meaning and place of God in the lives of the people.  In establishing their schools, the missionaries put God first because they knew that man without religion is worse than a dangerous animal and that a child who has no fear of God shall equally have no respect for his elders (Obuna, 1993).

 The major intention of the different missionary groups was to produce people who would be of service to “colonial trinity” - the Church, the Government and the firm.  The body of knowledge in that programme basically centred on the catechism, reading of passages from the Bible and prayer books.  The body of knowledge in the missionary system which continued up to and beyond the time of Nigerian independence in 1960, centred on the catechism, reading of passages from the Bible and prayer books (Bray, 1981).

Ezeobata (1985) noted that ‘up to, and even after Nigeria’s independence, religion still enjoyed a considerable pride of place in the curriculum’ of Nigerian schools. After gaining political Independence in 1960, however, there was a general outcry against the colonial system of education.  This weight of public opinion after independence led to a series of National Curriculum reforms to redirect the course of Nigerian education in the face of the new needs and aspirations of the people.  The recognition and realisation of the perceived ills of colonial educational policies in national development

have      thus     influenced       the       post     independence educational programmes.

 The curriculum conference of 1969 is a landmark in this regard. The conference spelt out in great details the national philosophy, goals, purposes and objectives of Nigerian education, and recommended a national curriculum reform (Adaralegbe, 1972).  A new set of goals like self-realisation, better human relationships and national economic efficiency were identified (Taiwo, 1980), for both the primary and the secondary school levels according to the needs of the society.   Taiwo (1980) also identified among these goals: effective citizenship, national consciousness, national unity, social and political progress and national reconstruction.

In recent times, however, fierce controversies have raged on the issue of teaching and learning of Christian Religious Knowledge as a school subject in Nigeria (Ezeobata, 1993). Some scholars have argued that religion has no practical educational value and should not be taught in schools as an academic subject (Njoku, 1987), while others like Cox (1966) and Amana (1987) held that if it must be taught, then it must be taught in the form of comparative religion. This resistance has left its mark on the harmonised syllabus of Religious Education in Nigeria which was meant to teach Bible Knowledge (BK) with no moral content.  Some social analysts (Nduka, 1983; Obuna, 1993; & Ojukwu, 1994) opined that this is one of the reasons for the government take over of schools, the near collapse of Religious Education and its attendant inadequacy in the schools.  They argued that this was not so in the past when the educational system in Nigeria had a high degree of religious content.

  The government take over of missionary schools in the seventies, however, seems to have begun the genesis of the dwindling impact of religious values among youths.  Obuna (1993) confirmed this view when he opined that:

Our children began to be trained into intellectual giants but spiritual dwarfs. As these intelligent children grew older they had to create their own gods to fill up the religious vacuum. This is what has led to their setting up of secret societies, occult worship and ritual sacrifices in our universities and other third level institutions all over the country today (p.25). 

                                                                    Obuna continued that in most state-owned schools, the

children were rather “deformed instead of being formed and instead of imbibing the spirit of hard work they imbibed the spirit of strikes at the slightest provocation.” This deformative tendency in the schools started some social ills such as bribery, corruption, intolerance etc, which today threaten our individual and corporate existence.

 However, in line with international trends, which were characterised by innovations and transformations in Religious Education, Nigeria undertook curriculum reforms to reassess her religious education programme at both the junior and secondary school levels.  The Christian Religious Knowledge Curriculum, which was implemented in April 1985, is a result of these reforms.  It is in recognition of the above and the search for a system that will contribute to good nation building that gave the study of Christian Religious Knowledge (CRK), top priority in the primary and junior secondary schools today. By this system every pupil or student is expected to learn it for the 3-3 segments of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, which is called “Christian Religious Knowledge” at both the Junior and Senior secondary school levels.

                                                              When the Christian Religious Knowledge Curriculum was

implemented in 1985, it was assumed that it would instil in our young people the required and desired knowledge, values, behaviours, 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 contain not only the content of the Bible but also moral lessons or instructions for the youth (Adewale, 1975).  It was believed that teaching and learning the Bible would help the Nigerian youth to prepare for useful living within the society and that the CRK teacher could help the youths to improve their morals and attitudes to God, to their fellow men, to their work and to the nation generally

(Gaiya, 1981).  In keeping with this belief, the National Curriculum for Junior Secondary Schools (FME, 1985) specified the following

objectives:School Authority/Ministry of Education/NERDC: The above agencies/educational bodies, would gain much beneficial insights from the findings/recommendations adduced in this study. For instance, the above mentioned education/research bodies would gather veritable information regarding the variables that are crucial to designing a holistic and all-encompassing CRK curriculum for Junior Secondary Schools, knowing its importance in the life of the Nigerian child and the society.

Society/Researchers/Scholars: This study will be of immense benefit to the above mentioned individuals in the academia and the society. While members of the society would appreciate the importance of good and effective implementation of curriculum in CRK, scholars and researchers in the subject would make objective reference to this study in their future studies.

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