Pedagogy of Christian Religious Education in Nigerian Schools

Abstract

Confronted by increased uproar, the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) rescinded its decision that removed Christian Religious Studies as a stand-alone subject and made it a sub-theme in Civic Education, unlike the Islamic/Arabic/French subjects in Nigeria’s Basic Education Curriculum (BEC). This paper criticizes against this controversial change. It appreciates the reversal to the old curriculum which allowed Islamic Religious Knowledge and Christian Religious Knowledge to be taught as individual stand-alone subjects, with the common-good focus on moral responsibility, peaceful co-existence and national development. The needful at this moment is a suitable and viable pedagogy for imparting religious knowledge in the classroom setting. In this light, this paper makes a case for Christian Religious Knowledge by recommending shared praxis and community practice pedagogical approaches. It argues that, these methods will serve as good guides for interactive construction of moral knowledge in the students’ class room and social settings.

Keywords: Religious Education, Christianity, Pedagogy, Praxis, Practice, Nigerian Schools