Religious education should not be indoctrination

A controversy is currently brewing concerning the teaching of religion in our schools.

Article 8 of the Constitution provides that there shall be no State religion. The meaning of this can be contested, but a plain reading suggests that the State must not endorse one religious idea over others, including the lack of religion.

A different reading might suggest that Kenya is officially a secular state, and the government must eschew all expression of religious ideas in official fora.

Based on these interpretations, it has been argued that religious education should not be included in the school curricula in this country.

Proponents of this argument have indicated that religious education privileges the one taught religion over the others.

Further, it serves to restrict the choice of learners on the available religious ideas, and restricts their thinking only to the options made available.

Opponents, on the other hand, have cobbled together a motley of reasons in support of continued teaching of religion in schools.

They have used the morality argument, suggesting that without exposure to religious education the entire country would degenerate into criminality and immoral behaviour.

Religious education, in their opinion, is the bulwark against collapse of established social order, and must continue and be strengthened in the interest of our own survival.

MIDDLE GROUND

In my opinion, there is a middle ground on this matter. It is not in the interest of knowledge that religious education be struck out completely from the curriculum.

Properly structured, it has the potential of broadening the thinking of learners and reducing the risk of religious extremism that is a constant threat to peaceful coexistence in our times.

Exposure to different religions teaches us not only just how similar we are in thinking about things we consider to be mysterious, but also how small and ridiculous our ideas can sometimes be. Nothing can be more valuable in education than this.

But looking at what our educationists consider religious education to be, one comes out with an understanding of where opponents of this kind of instruction are coming from.

In schools, religious education consists of teaching learners how to be good members of whatever religion is being taught.

They are taught that religious ideas are immutable facts that cannot be challenged without dire consequences.

Unfortunately, in the very next class they are exposed to the universe as it is, and not as it is thought to be in many religious texts. They learn that our world, and us, occupy a microscopic corner of the universe in comparison with other more gigantic objects in our immediate vicinity.

This sort of education confuses a critically thinking student, and leaves them with more questions than answers.

If this is the kind of religious education envisaged by the proponents, then one would argue for its scrapping.

But if religious education curricula go beyond proselytism and focus on educating learners about the origins of religion, the various religious ideas and world-views, similarities and differences between the various religions and so on, then I would be its most vocal proponent.

As things stand today, the writers of religious education curricula are mostly religious leaders bent on converting and maintaining students in their respective faiths.

Prof Lukoye Atwoli is an associate professor of Psychiatry and Dean, Moi University School of Medicine [email protected]