The Factors Responsible For Secondary School Student Poor Performance In Christian Religious Studies (A Case Study Of Enugu State)

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Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the factors responsible for secondary school student poor performance in Christian Religious Studies with a particular reference to Enugu State. To achieve this objective, three research questions and one research hypothesis were formulated to guide this study. The data was collected from primary sources. The primary data were collected with the help of a well-structured questionnaire of two sections administered to teachers of selected secondary schools in Enugu State. The collected data were analyzed with tables and simple percentages to analyze the research questions while Chi-square statistical tool was used to test research hypothesis. The study reveals that there is a significant difference in the perception/rating of the respondents on the problems of teaching and learning Christian Religious Studies in public and private schools. The study concluded with some recommendations that there is need for the school managers to not only organize, but encourage CRS teachers to attend workshops and seminars because the job of moulding human behavior is dynamic; hence regular attendance to seminars will equip them, with new approaches and methods for effective implementation of CRS curriculum among students.

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

1.2 Statement of the 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).

1.3 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?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

Identify the problems facing the teaching and learning of Christian Religious Studies in secondary schools.
Ascertain whether some of these problems are very serious, serious or not serious
Ascertain whether the same problems are facing both public and private schools.
Determine whether the identified problems are a function of the types of the schools (girls only, boys only, or mixed)
Ascertain whether some problems are functions of location of the schools based on local government areas.
Proffer solutions to the problems.

1.5 Research Hypothesis

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

H0: 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

1.6 Scope of the 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.

1.7 Limitation of the Study

There is no study undertaken by a researcher that is perfect. The imperfection of any research is always due to some factors negatively affecting a researcher in the course of carrying out research. Therefore, time constraint has shown no mercy to the research. The limited time has to be shared among many alternative uses, which includes reading, attending lectures and writing of this research, also distance and its attendant costs of travelling to obtain information which may enhance the writing of this study was a major limitation.

1.8 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:

Mixed School: Such Schools are co-educational, allowing both sexes to study together. This is typical of those schools established by the government.
Boys Only: Only the male students are allowed in such schools.
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.

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the summary, conclusion and recommendations for further studies.

5.2 Summary of the Study

The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using tables and descriptive statistics to analyze the research questions while Chi-square statistical method was used to test the hypothesis. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the perception/rating of the respondents on the problems of teaching and learning Christian Religious Studies in public and private schools.

5.3 Conclusion

Based on the findings, it is concluded that the factors responsible for students’ poor academic performance in CRS is lack of effective implementation of the subject. The challenges ranging from poor understanding of pedagogical and theological aims of the subject, societal moral decadence, lack of passion and love for students and the job, poor communication technique to vast and abstract nature of subject. Solutions to these inadequacies have also been sought; hence they need to adhere strictly to the demands of stakeholders in education of children, because factors affecting teachers’ preparation and execution of their duties effectively jeopardize the aim of establishing the subject. This otherwise mars the general aim of education, which is geared towards developing in man the knowledge and right attitude towards his neighbor.

5.4 Recommendations

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made:

There is need for the school managers to not only organize, but encourage CRS teachers to attend workshops and seminars because the job of moulding human behavior is dynamic; hence regular attendance to seminars will equip them, with new approaches and methods for effective implementation of CRS curriculum among students.
There is need for administrators to support the teaching of CRS in terms of provision of instructional materials and allocation of adequate time to the teaching of the subject.
Both governments, society and school management should emphasize the teaching of the CRS. In other words, greater emphasis on the importance of the subject is required. The subject could be made compulsory at all levels of our education like the use of English bearing in mind the role the subject is designed to achieve in the learner.
Teachers of CRS as a matter of importance should be equipped through training and retraining so that they will be properly grounded in the pedagogical and theological aims of the subject. Effective teaching is dependent upon teachers’ skills and knowledge; and these variable must be sorted out to enable the teaching of the subject achieve its set goals in the learners’ lives.

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The Factors Responsible For Secondary School Student Poor Performance In Christian Religious Studies (A Case Study Of Enugu State)

Abstract

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.3 Research Question

1.4 Objectives of the Study

1.5 Research Hypothesis

1.6 Scope of the Study

1.7 Limitation of the Study

1.8 Definition of Terms

1. Type of School:

2. Mode of School:

3. Location:

4. Christian Religious Studies Laboratory:

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Summary of the Study

5.3 Conclusion

5.4 Recommendations

How To Get The Complete Material For “The Factors Responsible For Secondary School Student Poor Performance In Christian Religious Studies (A Case Study Of Enugu State)“

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