CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The Christian Religious Education has emerged as a subject of prime importance in Nigerian schools. Its value in the school curriculum is unique among other subjects. The teaching of Christian Religious Knowledge in Primary schools in Nigeria can be dated back to the first half of the nineteenth-century when the Christian missionaries established the first school in Badagry in 1842. This form of education spread to the North in the early 19th century and CRK was taught in the schools. At the early period, proprietors of schools were the Christian missionaries (Methodist, Church Missionary Society (CMS), and Roman Catholic who considered CRK as an important subject to be taught in schools. Since then, Christian Religious education has occupied a prominent position in Nigerian school curriculum till date. The view was asserted by Onovughe 2008. In recognition of the value attached to the subject the subject was not only offered in the primary school alone but also in all levels of institution in Nigeria. Religious training and moral instruction was considered as fundamental to the development of sound education. The essence of teaching Christian religious education includes academic, moral; civil and spiritual objectives. In Christian religious education it is obvious that pupils are taught the way of life. Thus the teaching of the subject instils discipline and obedience in the products. The study of CRK will enable pupils to learn the tenets of the faith and to live a life that is that is pleasing to God. CRK therefore is aimed at producing (training) persons who will be fit or equipped for religious and social responsibility. Thus the focus of CRK curriculum among other things is for pupil’s moral training and academic pursuance. From the above observations, it is understood that Christian Religious Education is not only a subject to learn, but also a way of life, but what is not clear, is whether the teaching of this subject has made any meaningful impact on the students who learn it and on the Nigerian society as a whole. Moreover it can be seen that there is little relationship between what is learned in C.R.K classes and the C.R.K. graduates’ lives at home, as now one hears of so much evil, indiscipline and moral decadence in Nigerian society. C. M. 2000 lament on the Moral decadence in our institution as a result of religious Education. A look at Christian religious examination as if the Objective in the subject are of shows that these objectives are not achieved. Parents are misguided with the belief that any teacher can teach CRK, the authority concerned does not bother to recruit qualified CRK teachers. The pupils too were misguided with the assumption that CRK is simple to pass since they are Christians and can read Bible. This has adverse effect on Religious in Nigeria. This is mostly the practice in Primary and Secondary. This is why pupils will be non chalet. The goal of teaching CRK as a subject in our schools is to develop the morals of the individuals and the society as a whole. In other words, the aim of teaching CRK in Nigerian schools is to develop the pupil’s character and moral training which will enable them to have sound attitude. In Nigerian society, many parents and educationists have aired their views on the respect for moral decadence of their Children. This has made some parents to doubt the credibility of CRK in the Primary school’s curriculum as an agent of moral-upbringing. It is in the light of this, that the author attempts to find what could have been the problems of implementing the curriculum.

Objectives of Teaching Christian Religion Education in Nigeria Hon (1992) like other scholars have classified the behavioural objectives of teaching and learning CRK into three categories they are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. These are explained thus: objectives in the cognitive domain emphasize recall or recognition of facts, and the development of objectives of affective domain are concerned in changes in interest, attitudes and value, and the development of appreciation and judgment. Psychomotor domain objectives have to do with physical skills, manipulation of materials and objects. It summarizes the overall objectives of teaching and learning CRK in Nigeria schools wider; Religions, Moral, Social, Civics, Academic, Spiritual and personal objectives.

 Religious Objective: This means intimating the learner pupils on how God’s deals with His people as contained in the Holy Bible, as the Loving Father who cares for His children and who needs His children’s commitment to Him in Worship, faith and obedience to His will.

Moral Objectives: In the ethical teaching of the Bible to the learner, the teacher should let the learner see it as the directives from God the Father to guide the lives of the learners that they can live a proper human life without being forced to do so.

Social Objective: This could be summed up as the promotion of harmonious human relationships in schools, in the family and in the local community. Civil Objective: CRK helps the learner to grow up to be alert, responsible, tolerant, both courageous and patriotic citizens of a democratic and diverse nation.

Spiritual and Personal Objectives: The personal spiritual development of the learner is centre to all the other. Objectives in that it deals with inward activities of the learner. Having led the learner to understand the Christian faith responsibility and his relationship with God in Christ Jesus, the teacher has to encourage the learner to continue to grow in faith until he get to majority.

Academic Objectives: This involves “memorizing and inwardly digesting a body of factual information from the Jewish and Christian scriptures it also makes the learner to acquire knowledge in order to reach on academic height. The researcher agrees with the above objectives as the teaching CRK in primary school. In shared the same view as stated in the National Policy on Education as per the objectives for teaching CRK schools is in line with the objectives of primary education as stated in the National Policy on education 2004 section 3 (14) D pp.  on Religious Education. “To develop the pupils” Character and moral training to enable pupils a sound attitude”. Hon explained the factors as follows:

 1. The nature of the objectives: In most cases, it is the objective or the aims of the lesson that will determine the method to be used. If the objective is to develop skill course through practice or for the learner to acquire knowledge, the method of problem solving should be used. A thought provoking questions asked by the teacher is a good form of problem-solving.

 2. The Maturity of the pupils:- The age of the learner should be put into consideration when choosing a method to he used so that it may neither be too low nor too high for them. Adoption of methods should he made in terms of the capacities and interest of the pupils and other demands of the situation.

3. Attitudes of pupils towards learning: The teacher needs to be very sensitive to pupils attitude and set select methods accordingly. Pupils who are bored and uninterested must be handled in a careful different manner from those that are alert, interested and ready to learn.

4. Previous Study in the same field: Previous knowledge of the learner should be considered first by a good teacher, so that he can at his teaching from known to unknown. However a pupil who has exceptional advantages in some field of social interest should not be dealt with in the same way and manner as those pupils who have had no opportunity to do work in that field.

 5. Nature of Materials: It is very important and necessary that the teacher studies carefully the contents to be taught before selecting the method to be used for the teaching. The best method used for one content may be the worst method for content. Incidents from a well known Bible characters are usually presented in form of a story.

 6. Physical equipment and Facilities: The type of building, classrooms, board supplies and so on, has bearing in choosing the method to be use. For instance, in a situation was several students must meet in the classroom, general discussion may be impossible. Where there are no chalkboards, talk and illustrations cannot be used. Map exercise cannot he carried on if maps are not available.

 7. Time for teaching: It is best to just select methods that make for greatest and yield best result at shortest time possible before going into activities that might be very desirable as a teaching method. It will be unwise to start handwork or a project that the pupils may be obliged to stop doing, just when their interest is at its highest.

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STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The concern for Christian  Religious  Studies as an important aid to vocational education has led to studies identifying the problems of teaching and learning the subject. Much of the concern centers on the student, the teacher and the government and the effect on the performance of students in the subject. It is obvious that the performances of students in this subject at the SSC Examination are not encouraging (Oloidi 2003a).

RESEARCH QUESTION

The questions then arise; what are the problems facing teaching and learning of Christian  Religious  Studies as a vocational subject in the secondary schools in Nigeria?

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1.                  Identify the problems facing the teaching and learning of Christian  Religious  Studies in secondary schools.

2.                  Ascertain whether some of these problems are very serious, serious or not serious

3.                  Ascertain whether the same problems are facing both public and private schools.

4.                  Determine whether the identified problems are a function of the types of the schools (girls only, boys only, or mixed)

5.                  Ascertain whether some problems are functions of location of the schools based on local government areas.

6          Proffer solutions to the problems.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The following Ho were formulated by the researchers and tested at 0.05 level of significance.

There will be no significant difference in the perception/rating of the respondents on the problems of teaching and learning Christian  Religious  Studies in public and private schools

SCOPE OF STUDY

The study is restricted to finding out the problems of teaching  and learning Christian  Religious  Studies in secondary in Nigeria. The study limits the collection of data to Enugu  state, Nigeria. The findings of this study were gotten  from observation and interaction with senior teachers in Christian  Religious  Studies.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Some variables need to be explained so as to ensure a good grasp and understanding of the paper:

1.                  Type of School - School in  State can be classified into three types:

a.                   Mixed School - Such Schools are co-educational, allowing both sexes to study together. This is typical of those schools established by the government.

b.                  Boys Only - Only the male students are allowed in such schools.

c.                   Girls only -Only the female students are allowed in such schools. The school in band C and (b) are characteristics of mission schools before being taken over by the government.

2.                  Mode of School - This is simply the public school owned by the government or the private schools managed by business minded sole proprietorship.

3.                  Location - A local government is a location and all the schools in each of the local governments are a location unit.

4.                  Christian  Religious  Studies laboratory - This is a special room equipped with materials and equipments like ledger cards, long span chalk board rules in ledger form, sample source documents used for financial transactions, sample currency notes in various denominations for buying and selling, adding and listing machines, electronic calculators, duplicating machines, over head projector, tape recorder with play back, flip chart board, magnetic board, TV and Video. These are used for practical lessons in Christian  Religious  Studies.

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