The RE teachers’ perceptions of the RE syllabuses 2044 and 2046.

Table 38. Details on: “the RE syllabus is Bible-oriented in its approach”

The issue of whether or not the RE syllabus the respondents use was Bible-oriented in its approach to learning, 88.7% of respondents agreed, and 11.3% disagreed. The majority of the respondents perceive the two RE syllabuses as Bible oriented. Comparisons made between the responses and the syllabuses they use revealed that the majority of those who use syllabus 2046 (86%) agreed that the RE syllabus they use is Bible-oriented in its approach as compared to those who use syllabus 2044 (14%). The chi-square test reveals the relationship (chi-square value=10.039, p-value=0.002). The perceptions of those who agreed seem to be in line with the current RE syllabuses that were developed by the Christian churches, whose goals were to use them as means of offering Bible knowledge to pupils in schools. Further comparisons with the type of secondary schools in which the respondents teach revealed that the majority of those who agreed that the syllabus they use is Bible-oriented in its approach were from the GRZ secondary schools (70.9%), followed by the Private Christian (19.2%),

172 88.7 88.7 88.7 22 11.3 11.3 100.0 194 100.0 100.0 Agree Disagree Total Valid

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

and Private secular (5.2%), as compared to those found in Church/Grant-aided secondary schools (4.7%). The chi-square results show the significance of these results (chi-square value=22.303, p-value=0.000). Since most of those respondents found in Church/Grant- aided schools are from the Catholic/Anglican group and the syllabus they use is more pupil- centred than syllabus 2046 the differences in the perceptions of the two syllabuses are obvious.

Table 39. Details on: “the RE syllabus is relevant to the needs of pupils of all religious faiths”

This table shows that 26.6% of the respondents agreed that the syllabus they use was relevant to the needs of all religious faiths, 73.4% disagreed. The data show that the majority of the respondents perceive the syllabus they use as not relevant to the needs of all major religious faiths in schools. Comparisons made between the responses and the type of secondary school in which the respondents teach showed that the majority of those from the GRZ (84.3%) submitted that the two RE syllabuses are not relevant to the needs of all major religious faiths as compared to those from Private Christian schools (11.8%), and Private secular (3.9%). Notably, those from the Church/Grant aided schools (100%) disagreed that the current RE syllabuses are relevant to the needs of all religious faiths. Since all these schools belong to the Catholic denomination, this confirms that not only syllabus 2046 is not perceived to be relevant to the needs of all major religious faiths, but also syllabus 2044 (chi-square- value=8.996, p-value=0.29). 51 26.3 26.6 26.6 141 72.7 73.4 100.0 192 99.0 100.0 2 1.0 194 100.0 Agree Disagree Total Valid NA Missing Total

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Table 40. Details on: “the RE syllabus does not cater for the religious education of pupils from different religious faiths”

Seventy three percent of respondents agreed, and 27% disagreed. The data show that the majority of the respondents agreed that the current RE syllabuses do not cater for the religious education of pupils from various religious faiths. Comparisons made between the responses and the syllabuses the respondents use showed that the majority of those who use syllabus 2046 (84.4%) agreed as compared to those who use syllabus 2044 (15.6%).

Table 41. Details on: “RE syllabus is narrow-based rather than broad-based”

Eighty nine percent of the respondents agreed, 11% disagreed. The majority of the respondents agreed that the RE syllabuses they use are narrow-based in their approach to the learning of diverse religious issues in the country. Comparisons between the responses and the syllabus used revealed that the majority of those who use 2046 (84.4%) disagreed as compared to those who use syllabus 2044 (4.5%) that the syllabus they use is narrow-based.

Although the current syllabuses are regarded as narrow-based, the majority of the respondents who teach both syllabuses seem to disagree that they are narrow based, especially the majority of those who teach syllabus 2046 and a few from syllabus 2044. What seems to be perceived as narrow-based by some respondents may not be the same with others. The differences may lie in their religious affiliations and the syllabuses they use.

172 88.7 88.7 88.7 22 11.3 11.3 100.0 194 100.0 100.0 Agree Disagree Total Valid

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent 141 72.7 72.7 72.7 53 27.3 27.3 100.0 194 100.0 100.0 Agree Disagree Total Valid

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Table 42. Details on: “RE syllabus promotes equal coverage of all religious faiths”

This table shows that 27.9% of the respondents agreed, 72.1% disagreed. The data show that the majority of the respondents do not agree that the current RE syllabuses promote equal coverage of all major religious faiths in Zambia. Comparisons made between responses and type of secondary schools in which the respondents teach and the syllabus they use revealed that the majority of respondents who disagreed that the current RE syllabus promote equal coverage of all religious faiths were from the GRZ schools (65.7%) as compared to those from Private Christian (19.7%), Church/Grant-aided (8.8%), and Private secular schools (5.8%). On the other hand, the majority of those who use syllabus 2046 (83.2%) agreed that the current RE syllabuses promote equal coverage of all religious faiths as compared to those who use 2044 (16.8%). For those who use syllabus 2046 and agreed that the syllabus promotes equal coverage of all religions, may perceive it in two ways: first, the beliefs of all major religions are really covered in this syllabus, but the issue is how much of the non- Christian religious material is covered as compared to Christianity. Second, they may perceive it in terms of evangelism, in that the syllabus is Bible-centred and the aim of the Bible is to evangelise pupils regardless of their religious backgrounds.

Respondents were further asked to list three of the most important reasons why they were reluctant to respond to the MoE directive to apply the current RE syllabuses using a multireligious approach in Zambian secondary schools. The following reasons were submitted:

For syllabus 2044

• Its strong leaning toward Christianity and shallow coverage of non-Christian religions indicates its bias in teaching religious issues on an equitable basis.

53 27.3 27.9 27.9 137 70.6 72.1 100.0 190 97.9 100.0 4 2.1 194 100.0 Agree Disagree Total Valid NA Missing Total

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

• Its monotonous teaching of scriptural (Bible) passages leads to denominational inclination.

• Its confessional outlook tends to influence conversion of pupils to the Christian faith. • Its doctrinal focus tends to influence the indoctrination of pupils.

• Its insensitivity to non-Christian religions tends to make it dogmatic in its approach to learning.

• Its promotion of biblical spirituality and morality at expense of non-Christian religions makes it one-sided rather than being balanced.

• Its lack of promoting critical thinking leads to rote learning.

• A foreign syllabus transplanted to Zambia makes it irrelevant in teaching the real issues found in a Zambian situation.

• It is Christian “faith” oriented, hence it is difficult to apply educational principles • It is exam-oriented, hence it makes it difficult to teach life skills.

• It is content-oriented rather than process-centred which easily leads to memorisation of content by pupils.

• It lacks a clear-cut methodology between teaching and preaching as far as the teaching of RE as a subject is concerned.

For syllabus 2046

• Its exclusive stance over non-Christian religions makes it hard for non-Christian RE teachers to teach the subject effectively.

• The mixture of Christianity and non-Christian religions makes the syllabus syncretistic and leads to compromise of the Christian faith. Hence Christian RE teachers find it difficult to teach it with neutrality.

• Lack of enough training by Teacher Training Colleges to equip teacher trainees to handle comparative religions.

• Its catechetical approach tends to transmit ultimate biblical truth, hence it makes non- Christian pupils develop negative attitude toward the learning of RE.

• Its doctrinal thrust tends to influence Christian RE teachers to use RE as a subject for conversion purposes.

• Its pre-packed material for memorisation makes it hard for pupils to develop independent thinking over the content they are learning.

• Its denominational approach results in RE becoming an extension of church work in schools.

• Its approach to understanding religious issues from a Western viewpoint makes it hard for pupils to learn and understand religious concepts from an African perspective. • Non-Christians beliefs and values are explored with a view to marginalize them in the

syllabus; hence it tends to offend RE teachers who may not belong to Christianity. • Lack of intellectual challenge leads to parochial learning.

• Lack of enough RE textbooks for pupils forces them to develop a dependency syndrome by relying on teachers’ notes alone.

• Its exam-oriented learning makes it hard to help pupils to be practical in their learning of religious issues.

Table 43. Details on: “who should design and implement the RE syllabus for Zambian secondary schools”

On who should design and implement the RE syllabus for Zambian schools, 51% wanted it to be done by the Ministry of Education (MoE), 45.4% wanted it to be done by both the churches and MoE, 2.1% to be done by other, and 1.5% of the respondents wanted the Churches to do it. The data show that the majority of respondents would like the Ministry of Education to design and implement the RE syllabus for Zambian secondary schools.

The respondents made the following recommendations:

3 1.5 1.5 1.5 99 51.0 51.0 52.6 88 45.4 45.4 97.9 4 2.1 2.1 100.0 194 100.0 100.0 Churches Ministry of Education Both Other Total Valid

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Ministry of Education (51%).

• It has people who are highly skilled in the methodologies and nitty gritty of the subject of their specialisations.

• It is the custodian of all educational curricula in Zambia.

• It will help in the implementation of Educating Our Future policies on education in Zambia.

• It will help in avoiding the indoctrination of pupils by churches. • It will discourage creating churches within schools.

Both churches and Ministry of Education (45.4%).

• Both are stakeholders of RE, therefore, they must be involved in the design and implementation of the RE syllabus.

• Since pupils are both the products of churches and schools, churches and the Ministry of Education must participate in the decision making of designing and implementing the RE syllabus.

Other (2.1%).

• Let the RE teachers design and implement the RE syllabus because they are the ones who teach the subject and they know their pupils’ needs.

Churches (1.5%).