Public Secondary School Students’ Attitude on the Role of Christian Religious Education on Social Cohesion in Nairobi County, Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the students’ attitude on the role of CRE in the promotion of social cohesion. The study was guided by four objectives related to students’ characteristics, categories of schools and parental background. These objectives were supported by corresponding hypotheses. Review of related literature covered various themes such as the concept of attitudes, students’ characteristics and social cohesion, parental factors and social cohesion, institutional factors and social cohesion. The research design used was descriptive survey which employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study was conducted among Form four CRE secondary school students in Nairobi County, some of their teachers and a few education officers in the County. The target population was 5550 CRE students, 160 CRE teachers and 8 education officers. From this population a sample of 550 CRE students, 25 CRE teachers and 4 education officers participated in the study. The questionnaire was the main tool used for the students while interviews were used for teachers and education officers. The research findings were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data was processed and analysed with the help of the SPSS software programme and summarised into frequency tables and percentages. Qualitative data was subjected to content analysis from which relevant information was extracted. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study found that CRE is perceived as an important tool in the promotion of social cohesion. It was further established that students’ age (p=0.030) and the type of school attended (p=0.010) displayed a significant level of influence on their attitude on the role of CRE in social cohesion. It was further established that mothers’ and fathers’ level of education was significant at p=0.030 and p=0.042 respectively. However, the students’ gender, ethnicity and their parents’ occupation did not have such significant influence. The following are some of the recommendations the study made; enhancing CRE, strengthening its teaching methods for social cohesion and integrating the teaching of religious values across all the subjects in the curriculum. Among the recommendations for further research is replicating the study in other counties and having a comparative study between rural and urban Counties with a view of finding out if the results would remain the same given the fact many rural counties are occupied by people belonging to one ethnic group while Nairobi is cosmopolitan.