The Problem of Separate Faith-Based Schooling in a Pluralist Society (A Philosophico-Religious Analysis of Separatist and Isolationist Ideologies of Learning)

Abstract

Every society craves naturally to live in communion and understanding with the persons and the groups found in it. This is also in line with the aphorism that man is a ‘being-with-others’, as against the separatist and segregationist opinion of each person living ‘for-itself’. Whereas the first denotes man as altruistic and out-reaching, the latter sees man as selfish and isolated from others around him. To live in communion with others means exercising a high sense of understanding (verstehen) and empathy for his environment. On the contrary, it is entails indifference and apathy. To understand others can be manifested in the effort any government

or any society makes to establish institutions of learning which either integrate the citizens or segregate them leading to divisions and separatist tendencies. Religious institutions can be the clearest examples of such integrative tendencies or separatist ideologies. In a pluri-religious and diverse cultural society like Nigeria, it is most pertinent to seek avenues for enhancing empathy and mutual understanding between each other, which in this paper would be analysed as a pedagogical problem.