Christian Religious Education in Kenyan Secondary Schools: An Appraisal

Abstract

This research examines the attitudes and opinions regarding the study of Christian Religious Education in Kenyan Secondary Schools among the immediate stakeholders, that is, the students/learners, teachers and principals. This is chiefly because there has been a noticeable decline of interest in the study due to government's emphasis on science and technological oriented subjects that are needed in the job market. In the wake of this lackadaisical attitude, there have been many riots in secondary schools and general moral decadence. The research attempts to promote a reconceptualization of Christian religious education as a vital study area in the lives of students, pointing its transformative effect on an individual's worldview. It highlights the various stages.at which Christian Religious Education as a discipline was established and perpetuated in the Kenyan school curriculum. That is, the various education policies, and cites when the tum of events came about. It also examines the relationship between Christianity and sciences, and between Christianity and African traditional religion in a bid to show that they accommodate and indeed require each other. It points out the importance of re-evaluating the curriculum and to some extent the teaching approach to that which matches the contemporally challenges. It tries briefly to describe some learning/teaching environments outside Kenya in order to provide a grid for assessing the Kenyan situation/trend and makes recommendations on aspects that need attention so as to give the Christian religious education discipline the credit it deserves.