Christian Religious Studies or Christian Religious Preaching?

Last week Thursday I met a teacher in Goodness and Mercy Primary School. Correction: I met a concerned teacher in this primary school. He was more than happy to share the cause of his concern being that the Minister of Education Adamu Adamu had scrapped CRS from the Nigerian WASSCE syllabus. He caught my attention with these words and I urged him to go on. He said that Adamu Adamu is a stoic Muslim and has begun the operation to Islamize Nigeria by removing CRS from our list of subjects only to be replaced with either French or Islamic Religious Studies. At this point I got confused; so one man, a single man appointed Minister of Education could just wake up one morning and secretly remove CRS from our syllabus. I made a mental note to do an investigation on this and here I am a few days later.

Obviously it is not true; the FG was quick to debunk this claim on the Daily Post before I even had a chance to write on it. It takes more than one man to remove one subject from a national syllabus. By constitutional right (section 38), Nigeria is a secular country. And a secular country cannot remove a religion from the syllabus to favor another. So these mischief makers managed to cause uproar in the country over something that hasn’t even happened. I confronted a neighbor of mine regarding this case he told me that ‘It hasn’t happened, but they’re about to do it.’ If you’re thinking like this please stop.

The Constitution Section 38

Speaking of which, I studied C.R.S in Secondary School and I can boldly tell you that it was part two of Sunday school. In junior school, according to your religion you are forced to either study IRS or CRS. Why would a school in a secular country force you study a religion? Let me rephrase if you are not a Muslim in Nigerian school you are automatically a Christian and therefore you MUST study CRS. It doesn’t end there, if you are not worshipping Allah on Friday in a Nigerian school you are forced to attend the protestant church on Sunday which involves religious rituals such as anointing and Holy Communion. And according to our constitution this is wrong.

In junior school CRS; you basically learned the popular bible stories and morals which are also taught in Sunday school. Then in senior school, where you’re supposed to learn to study (which involves criticism of the bible as any other literary text) you are forced to memorize religious lessons and the appropriate quotation. You don’t learn about the writers of the bible, you don’t learn about the dates the books were written, you are certainly not allowed to criticize the bible (as most CRS teachers are pastors, they will not hear you give an intelligent questioning of the authenticity of the books in the bible) and you aren’t even taught what languages the books of the bible are translated from, I learned about the Church of England from Literature lessons rather than in the CRS that is supposed to deal with the history of Christianity. By right a Muslim should not feel uncomfortable studying CRS in a Secondary school in a secular country, but I assure you that any Muslim that studies CRS will be uncomfortable with the preaching of the teachers. I have no issues with CRS being in our syllabus but if we are studying, then let us study. We might as well change CRS to CRP.

Anybody that has written UTME (AKA JAMB) can tell you that CRS in that exam is simply a Bible Quiz. Check your past questions, here is what the questions look like: Who among the following was sold to the Ishaemlites for twenty shekels because of his dreams? A. Moses B. Joseph C. Jacob D. Ishmael E. Minahem of Israel. Who sold his birthright for a plate of pottage? A. Daniel B. Esau C. Jacob D. Nathaniel E. Adam. And it goes on in this pattern. With all the preaching we received in secondary school, when it was finally time for us to write an international (Cambridge O Levels specifically) CRS exam we all doffed.

Religious Study Summary from Cambridge

So yes, if you want to change CRS in our syllabus feel free to. But it has to become an actual study not an assimilation of information.  

I got a PhD student in Peace and Conflict, Mr. Adebayo V. Adedeji  from the University of Ibadan to tell me how he feels about the topic of discourse:

'Christian Religious Studies as being taught in primary and post primary schools is purely an academic field of study just like the other obtainable subjects. Religious Studies which is an age-long academic discipline devoted to research into religious beliefs, behaviors and institutions has its introductory knowledge in Nigeria from the very basic level of education which is the primary level to upper basic level still known as Junior Secondary School 3. At the beginning of the Senior Secondary School Education which is the basis for academic specialization in Nigeria. Religious Studies (Christian or Islamic basically) are made part of the curriculum for Arts students. This is expedient for a country where almost all (if not all) the citizens professes faith in either of the two organized religions, Christianity and Islam. It is important to note that there is the place of African Traditional Religion which is not the focus of this analysis at least for now. It is also important to reiterate that the purpose of either Christianity or Islamic Studies is not to proselytize but to be treated as a body of knowledge which evaluation can be applied for the purpose of placement, promotion or other educationally designed purposes.

'Secularity simply put is an arrangement in a political entity that clearly separates religion from state activities or functions. A careful look at this perhaps oversimplified analogy will definitely not see Nigeria, a country that sponsors citizens for pilgrimage to Israel and Saudi Arabia as one. Religion means a lot to Africans in general and Nigerians in particular. An attestation to this fact can be drawn from the devastating use of religion narratives in the 2015 general election. It is therefore logical for any government in power to handle this sensitive aspect of people’s culture carefully.

'The crux of the discourse, curriculum planning in Nigeria has to be looked into. While I will be very careful not to exacerbate the issue, the reason for merging of subjects together with a new nomenclature is not a new trend as it has been done to other subjects in the past; Social Studies serving as a window for student in having an idea of what arts and humanities looks like, Integrated Science too serving the same purpose into the scientific world. However, this not so new trend has activated a heated debate because it is touching on religion. 

'Two things to be considered; It appears that the communication of government intentions in this regard has not been well managed. It is also important to reassess the rationality of the merging of these two subjects. Perhaps it is not necessary in the first place. I am personally afraid of new changes and ideas being introduced not only in the area of education. The quality of research done before policies are made and subsequently enacted needs to be looked into. 

In conclusion, Nigerians should be charitable enough not to judge with bias as it will be practically impossible for just one person [minister of education] to arbitrarily take this decision.'

From this it is easy to judge that Mr. Adebayo agrees that this claim is an impossibility. It cannot happen. But he manages to craftily avoid another focus of mine regarding the criticism of CRS. Feel free to leave your comments regarding this subject matter. The WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? is in your hands.