Project – THE PROBLEMS PROSPECTS AND PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

ABSTRACT

The study examined “Problems prospects and progress of Christian education in Ohaozara LGA”. The study objectives are to: Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects; Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects; The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject; and the attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE. The study employed the descriptive survey design.  The nature of the problem was duly considered in the study.  The research design used for this study is the survey design. The reason why this design was adopted was because the researcher would make use of the primary data obtained through the questionnaire. The area of the study covers students of five selected secondary schools located within Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi. The target population consists of public secondary school students in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi. Simple random sampling technique was adopted for the study. The researcher used a total of one hundred (100) students from five (5) selected public secondary schools in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi. The research instrument used was questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using simple percentage while hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square Statistics. The study recommended that Government both at the federal and state levels should employ more qualified teachers for secondary schools to ensure efficiency and optimal performance in Christian Religious Studies subject. The study also recommended that Teachers should develop positive relationship with students and stress classroom activities, that will involve active teaching-learning process and students participation in the class. The study concludes that insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers and instructional materials for teaching affects Christian Religious Studies subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

The high level of moral decadence and insurgencies in Nigerian nation is an indication that there is poor religious teaching in secondary school system. Christian Religious Studies (CRS) as one of the religious subjects taught in secondary school in Nigerian takes a central position in ensuring moral and spiritual well being of individuals in the society. The key roles of CRS in equipping the individuals and ensuring high level of morality is made clear in the objectives of CRS at the senior secondary level which include; to provide more opportunities for Nigerian youths to learn more about god and thereby develop their faith in God; to enable the youths to accept Christ as their savior; to help the youths develop Christian attitude and moral values (such as humility, respect, love, and justice, etc); to instill in the youth the spirit of tolerance , reconciliation ,peaceful co existence and non-violence as well as to develop and foster in the youth the spirit of respect for all people and human life (Universal Basic Education (UBE, 2013).

Without effective religious studies Nigerian nation will likely to end up in conflict, religious crisis, insurgencies and social unrest among other things. This is because religious control human actions in both social, political, economical and otherwise (Eluu, 2009). The teaching of CRS dates back to the 19^th century with the pioneers of Nigerian education (Banjo, 2003). During the missionary administration because of the moral values it teaches the people. Following the government takeover of schools, Nigerian, secondary school curriculum was reviewed and more emphasis was placed on the studies of science and technological subjects. This shift affected the study and interest of students in CRS in school system leading to poor enrollment in CRS. Gbenda (2004) stresses that student’s enrollment and interest in CRS could as well be as of result of inadequate provision of teaching aids, fewer professional teachers and lack of incentives among other things. Njoku (2009) equally adduced that poor enrollment of student in CRS could be attributed to teacher’s instructional delivery system and teachers’ personality. CRS is taught in all the senior secondary schools in Nigerian as an elective subject. The elective nature of the subject in senior secondary schools in Nigeria equally reduced the number of students that register for the subject in West African examination council (WAEC) and national examination council (NECO) as well as other internal examination. CRS is a subject that bases its teaching on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ (Ugwu, 2001) as a teaching subject, it is not only geared towards converting people to Christianity, but is necessary for value formation, orientation and reorientation of value system as well as spiritual up liftment of the student. Ali and Akubue in Njoku (2009) observed that, CRS is a subject which aims at developing and fostering in the lives of the students Christian attitudes and values such as respect to life, obedience to constitutional authority, responsible self, selfless series to God and humanity. To them, CRS is seen as an academic discipline that is designed to provide the leaner with moral and spiritual transformation. This shows that CRS is the study of Christian lifestyles such as love, caring, patience, faith, forgiveness and hope in God as well as good relationship among men. Obanya in Njoku (2004) maintained that CRS like every other subjects has five features. These features are; a set of rational theoretical formulation, inherent capacity for growth, applicable solution to human problems, organized Body of the knowledge and a degree of uniformity with other area of academic activities. In the context of this study, CRS is defined as a social science subject that teaches students good moral behaviour, fearing of God, knowledge and skills that will make them to contribute their quota in socio-economic and moral development in senior secondary schools. The inclusion of sound religions and moral values in the life of students invariably could help in the development of spiritual and moral sound being of the students. These important values attached to the study of CRS in schools cannot be achieved if teachers do not utilized effective teaching method that appeals to all the senses of students in leaning situations.

Following the shift in the study of CRS, motivation started dwindling, and interest in the subject dropped Arinze (1982:28) observed that the teaching of the subject witnessed slackening of control by principals /head teachers, difficulty of training and assigning teachers, placing the subject in the school timetable, teachers’ lack of commitment and other defects such as students’ dishonesty, examination malpractices and disrespect to mention but a few. In support of the above assertion, Ndarwa (2007) maintained that pupils nowadays are groomed to be intellectual giants in science and technology with little or no interest in the moral growth, this he referred to as spiritually dwarfism. Ndarwa maintained that when the children /pupils grow older, they may create an avenue to close the spiritual vacuum. Some of the pupils may join secret cults to perpetuate evil in diverse forms.

Notwithstanding, it has been observed that there are many problems militating against the teaching of Christian Religious Studies in Post primary schools as enumerated by many writers on problem of Christian Religious Studies in Nigeria. They attributed the high level of failures in Christian Religious Studies to lack of students concentration in the classroom, their view steamed from observed students performance in Christian Religious Studies.

Thus, observed failure could be as a result of inability of the students to understand economic terms, lack of finance to buy relevant textbooks, inadequate teachers, inability of the students’ to interpret Christian Religious Studies table and graph, inappropriate and ineffective method of teaching, lack of control over the attitudes of students and teachers and others which have contributed to low level of teaching Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools.

Okorie (1979: 152) suggested that for the effective teaching to take place, the skillful teacher needs to use the many effective method and techniques effectively because in them his success and failure depends. He further emphasized that the success in the use of methods depends on the intelligent analysis of educational purposes, pupil in the class and the curriculum content of the moment.

A few moment reflection is sufficient to reveal that every society faces crucial issues and problem in education which have very serious economic angles that cannot be overlooked easily for instance, the production of education as well as the acquisition of education both require the use of large qualities of scare resources (Production of education requires conducive classrooms, administrative blocks, personnel, librarians, laboratories while the acquisition of education requires expenditures on tuition fees, book, travels, uniform, lodging etc. and students time.

1.2    Statement of the Problem

Christian Religious Studies is been taught in secondary schools in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and it has been observed that majority of students in government secondary school performed poorly in Senior Certificate Examination. It has also been observed that there are lots of problems militating against the effective teaching of Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools in the study area.

poor performance in Secondary School Certificate Examination (WAEC) is caused by many factors such as; students ineffective study techniques, quality of teachers and method of teaching, the parents inability to provide useful materials like textbooks, exercise books and school fees and problem of inadequate instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies in schools.

However, the pivoting problems of Christian Religious Studies is complex and can minimally be solved if the teachers and students change their attitude towards teaching in schools generally and to Christian Religious Studies in particular.

 1.3    Purpose of the Study

Study has been undertaken with a view to identify the Problems prospects and progress of Christian education in Ohaozara Local Government Area and factors responsible for these problems. Specifically, the study sought to find out if:-

1. Insufficient numbers of qualified teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.
2. Unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects,
3. The previous socio-economic backgrounds of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject.
4. The attitude and interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE.

Research Questions

In assessing the purpose of the study, this research project will answer the following questions:

1. Does insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subject?
2. Does unavailability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject affects students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects?
3. Does previous socio-economic background of the students affect them in studying Christian Religious Studies subject?
4. How would interest of students towards the nature of Christian Religious Studies subject contribute deeply to their mass failure in SSCE?

 

 Research Hypotheses

In carrying out this research work the following theoretical statements are buttressed to serve as a direction on which the work will be premised:

1. H₀: Insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers does not affects students’ mass failure of students in Christian Religious Studies subject

H₁:  Insufficient numbers of qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers and instructional materials teaching affects Christian Religious Studies subject.

1. H₀:There is no significant relationship between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject and students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.

H₁:   There is significant   relationship   between availability of instructional materials for teaching of Christian Religious Studies subject and students’ mass failure in Christian Religious Studies subjects.

 1.6    Scope of the Study

The research work seeks to examine the Problems prospects and progress of Christian education. The study will be limited to five selected schools in Ohaozara Local Government Area, Ebonyi.

 

1.7   Significance of the Study

There is need to apply knowledge from Christian Religious Studies to many area of our life in other to benefit the society. The achievements of the objective necessitates an understanding of the basic teaching of Christian Religious Studies. We cannot attain national objectives in the light of poor or average performances in examinations and lack of application of Christian Religious Studies to life students.

Without doubt, improved teaching of Christian Religious Studies will spur us into greater heights. This study will help to make our educational administrators to see the need to have qualified Christian Religious Studies teachers to handle the subject effectively for the benefit of the students and society at large.

This study will help to sensitize the educational administrators to appreciate the need to make available the necessary materials, example, chalkboard, graphs, audio-visual materials etc. that will enhance effective learning of Christian Religious Studies if they are not available.

This study will if need be direct the Christian Religious Studies teachers’ attention to the need for them to adopt more appropriate teaching method in order to bring about the above mentioned desirable experience in the learners. This study will have a great significance because it is going to provide information to Christian Religious Studies teachers for formation and evaluation of their plans.

It will be useful to learners for through this, they will be able to identify the problems militating against the proper teaching of Christian Religious Studies. This study will help to produce sound Christian Religious Studies students that will function very well in the economy such as:

(a) Knowing how to use scarce productive resources with alternative uses to meet prescribed ends and be able to apply the principles of Christian Religious Studies.

(b)  The product of Christian Religious Studies that should be able to pick employment within a limited employment opportunity in any economy.

This work will serve as a source of encouragement to students and teachers that will come across it. It is hoped that the findings of this study would also form the basis for further research work by future researchers on this issue.

 1.8 Definition of Terms

Christian Education: Christian education conveys knowledge and methods in understanding the intellectual, historical, and social contexts of the development of Christianity and Christian thought.

Instructional Materials: These are materials that are used to aid in the transference of information from one student to another in Education arena.

Teaching: the act or profession of a person who teaches.

Project – THE PROBLEMS PROSPECTS AND PROGRESS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION