The Role of Christian Religion Education in Promoting Peaceful Co-existence Among Students in Barkin Ladi LGA Plateau State, Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of Christian Religious Education as a tool of promoting peaceful co-existence in Barkin Ladi LGA. The study is also designed to achieve the specific objectives:
- To identify the causes of crises in Barkin Ladi LGA.
- To identify the effect of the crises on educational activities in the area.
- To identify ways that Christian Religion Education can help in establishing peace among school children.
- To identify approaches in the teaching and learning of Christian Religion Education that would promote peaceful co-existence.
- To identify ways that Government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can promote peaceful co-existence in the local area.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION EDUCATION
Christian Religious Education in Nigeria began with the advent of missionaries and mission agencies in mid 1800s. It was introduced in the form of evangelism and as part of western missionary enterprise Fafunwa, (1995). Before the coming of missionaries, communities had their own traditional systems of Education and in some parts of the country, Islamic Religion had already been entrenched. In trying to visualize the cohabitation of Christianity and Islam in Nigeria, their coexistence would naturally be competitive for obvious reasons. Each of these religious come to a new environment in the garment of the sending culture, each had the human element which is the vehicle of the divine as well as the diabolical. King (1971) noted that entry into a different religious world view without love, respect and humility, and abandoning ones critical faculty often generates conflict.
Several factors were behind the introduction of education in Nigeria by the various groups and organizations. The missionaries saw the education of the indigenous population of Christianity. The colonial administrators saw in educating the local populace a means of producing a literate being, who would run errands for him as domestic hand messenger.
Both approaches to education were based on giving to the African what was considered to be best for him, and not necessarily and educational system which was in accordance with his cultural heritage and sociological environment and one that was aimed at projecting and promoting the African personality (Makulu, 1971) while the motivation for education was evangelism for the missionary for the tribesmen, it was a way of entering into the mysteries of western technological civilization. Education helped to facilitate the spread of European civilization in Africa. Tribal institutions, were discouraged as there was a tendency to measure every part of African life by the European standards.
The issues of curriculum content and policy were extremely in the hands of individual mission agencies until government became interested in education when the issued grants of 30 pounds in 1872, distributed among Anglican, Wesleyan and Catholic mission in Lagos. In 1874 the grant increased to 100 pounds to each ad by 1876 it had increased to 200 pounds for each mission agency. There was also a divergence of opinion on the content and purpose of education. While the government was trying to intellectualism, the missions wanted spirituality. In 1952, there was a Cambridge conference on African education and in 1961, the add is Ababa conference on the development of education of education in Africa held. There was another conference for higher education in Africa, during which participants expressed the desire to exclude religious education from secondary curriculum.
There has been a lot of criticism of missionary educational activity in Nigeria, but whatever the failings Ivorgba (2006) still identified quiet a good number of major contributions made by these missionaries to the growth and development of our societies and communities such as:
- They made the administration to create law and order in place of inter tribal wars and anarchy.
- They also facilitated the social and moral development of the Nigeria people
- The also contributed to social and moral regeneration through churches and schools as well as preventing the demoralization of society
- They also facilitated mobility by ensuring safety of travel without the risk of being enslaved elsewhere in Nigeria.
CHAPTER THREE
METHOD AND PROCEDURE
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research used descriptive survey research design. This is used when dealing with a systematic collection of data and information from the population through the use of questionnaire.
(Abdullah, 1995). The choice of survey design in this study is based on the fact that the entire population would not be covered, and so sampling will be carried out. This design was adopted to enable the researcher gather relevant data on the role of Christian Religion Education in promoting peaceful co-existence in the area.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
RESULTS
Research Question One
What are the causes of violence in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area?
The summary of the responses is presented
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
This study investigated the role of Christian Religion Education in promoting peaceful co-existence in Barkin Ladi LGA.
The following are findings that emanated from the studies:
- The causes of violence in Barkin Ladi were lack of forgiveness, unemployment, Religious fanaticism, hatred, poor parental upbringing, poverty and bias reporting by the mass media among others.
- The effects of conflict were identified as high rate of school dropout, loss of lives and properties, destruction of school buildings, lack of mutual trust, increase in criminal activities, theft and closure of schools during crisis.
- Some of the ways of curbing the violence include: dialogue, community vigilant group, security operatives, peace conference and recovery of illegal aims.
CONCLUSION
Based on the findings that emerged from the study peaceful co-existence has greatly become a matter of concern that all people should embrace. The dangers of violence to the academic, health, social, material and spiritual well being of the students are grave. The rate of violence has become so rampant that it calls for urgent attention. The study identified some reasons for violence, the effects of violence, past-efforts to curb violence and present ways that Christian Religion Education can promote peaceful co-existence. However, attending conferences, seminars, workshops by Christian teachers and students and active participation in policy formulation, with regular prayers are some of the best ways of resoling conflicts encountered by Christian students.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In the light of these studies the following recommendations are made:
- Government should promote peace, reconciliation and tolerance through education, training, community action and youth exchange programmes.
- Government and NGO’s should morally and financially support the Christian Religion Education in their role and effort to promote peace.
- Parents should endeavor to give their children adequate moral training while at the young age to enable early inculcation.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The following are some of the limitations faced by the researcher in the process of compiling out the study:
- The research was faced with the problem of road accessibility, insecurity because most schools were located in the rural areas.
- The research work is limited to searching for the causes of lack of peaceful co-existence in the area and dangers caused by lack of peace.
- The study focus primarily on the role of Christian religion education in promoting peaceful co-existence in Barkin Ladi LGA.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Owing to the limitations of the study the researcher wish to allocate the following topics for further studies:
- The same study can be replicated in other local government areas of the state, where crisis is rampant.
- The place of Christian religion education in socialization and national development.
- The role of Christian religion education in promoting peaceful co-existence in schools.
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