Pastors Adeboye and Kumuyi
Top Christian religious leaders in the country have condemned the subtle moves to convert Christian secondary school students to Muslims by imposing Arabic Studies on them by the Federal Government.
The Christian leaders who are all members of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) include Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor W.F. Kumuyi of Deeper Life Bible Church, Bishop David Oyedepo of the Living Faith Church, Bishop Mike Okonkwo of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) and Reverend Felix Omobude.
The religious leaders reject the imposition of Arabic studies on Christian students in Secondary schools in Nigeria and ordered Christian students to boycott the compulsory Arabic classes.
Vanguard newspaper in a report said the pastors at a meeting called for immediate reversal of the revised Basic Education Curriculum, especially the removal of Christian Religious Studies as part of a subject known as Religion and National Values, and maintained that Christian Religious Studies should stand on its own as a separate subject just as it has always been.
They criticised the move to impose Arabic Studies on every secondary school student in the country, stating that the federal government has no right to force any Nigerian student at any level to study Arabic Studies.
The leaders urged the Christian students all over Nigeria to “not attend Arabic classes” claiming that the government has no authority to force the children to attend the classes.
Omobude, who is the PFN national president, Oyedepo and Okonkwo all said: “We are aware of orchestrated plans to subtly use this policy as a means of forceful religious indoctrination and we maintain our stand against it.”
“Government has no right to force subjects on any any Nigerian child neither does it have the authority to drop Christian Religious Studies at the Senior Secondary School level while asking him/her to continue to read Islamic Studies which he/she cannot do at university level,” Bishop Oyedepo said, emphasising that by stopping Christian Religious Studies, CRS, automatically meant that it would not be embraced at the tertiary institutions.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association Nigeria (CAN) has called on the Federal Ministry of Education and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to publish the full details of the controversial new curriculum of education if they have no hidden agenda.
Speaking through its president, Dr Samson Ayokunle, CAN alleged that there is discrimination against Christian students in the curriculum.
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@SalihuMD: Anytime you people want to dish out lies and mischief you drag the name of Jonathan into it. That propaganda wont work this time as we are now wiser. There are many good policies jonathan initiated including 2014 constitutional conference which you Northern muslim refused to accept but only pick those ones that promote your islam, you think we are fools. Why should Arabic study be a stand alone course at senior secondary while CRK was removed at that level and you are here spreading lies to cover your evil. it wont work period
If you call him a christian, I will agree with you because he bears christian name. That is the only resemblance of christianity in him, The other one is a chief occultic and the money at all means, will do anything to get the money. How will they understand the implications of what they did? Because there are not deep in the knowledge of the word of God. May we never see that type of people in our national life again. AMEN
What is all the fuss about religious studies. We create a mountain where there is none. Nobody is forcing any religion on anybody. I am a Christian and I went to a muslim school. I chose to learn Arabic language while in secondary school (it wasn’t forced on me). Have I been converted to a muslim today? No. Learning Arabic as a language made me understand some basic things (people fear what they don’t understand and hate what they can’t conquer) mind you we were also taught CRS in the same school. so please lets not heat up the polity by this mundane topic.
Quite unfortunate how this issue is being blown out of proportion by some people mostly for their selfish gains. Please go through the article below with an open mind and then make up your mind about this whole curriculum issue.
New education curriculum: Distinguishing Rumours from facts
In 2010, former President Goodluck Jonathan convened a National Summit on Education. The Summit unanimously agreed that the Nigerian basic education curriculum is unwieldy, about 20 subjects at the time, and recommended a reduction in the number of subjects offered at the basic level of education.
In 2012, the Federal Government approved a curriculum reform aimed at rationalizing the subjects offering in public schools in line with global practices and standards and the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) was mandated to effect that.
In 2014, NERDC came up with a 9-year curriculum with the subjects arranged into groups, producing a maximum of 12 subjects at the lower basic (primary 1-3), 9 subjects at the middle basic (primary 4-6) and 10 subjects at the upper basic (JS 1-3).
NOTE: English, Mathematics, French language, Arabic Language, and Business Studies (at the upper basic) are the only subjects that stand on their own. All the remaining 17 subjects in the Curriculum have been respectively listed under various subject groupings: Religion and National Values, Nigerian Languages, Basic Science and Technology, Pre-Vocational Subjects, and Cultural and Creative Arts.
2015 was the year slated for the implementation of the reform across the nation.
NOTE: While all the other subjects are core, Arabic Language at all levels is OPTIONAL.
NOTE: All the above (from conceptualization to formulation of the policy) happened under Goodluck Jonathan, immediate past President, Nyesom Wike, then Minister of Education, and Prof. Godswill Obioma, the former NERDC Executive Secretary.
In 2016, in the spirit of continuity of government’s policies and programmes, the current Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu gave directives as appropriate for the implementation of the reform.
Now let us look at the bone of contention, which is related to the teaching of CRS and Islamic Studies. Under the reform, as noted above, five subjects have been grouped under Religious Studies and National Values.
These are: A) CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS STUDIES (CRS); B) CIVIC EDUCATION; C) ISLAMIC STUDIES; D) SECURITY EDUCATION AND E) SOCIAL STUDIES
The Christian Religious Studies (CRS) under the Curriculum has three themes, namely:
(i) God and His Creation (ii) God’s Call and (iii) Keeping God in our Relationships
Also, Islamic Studies has three themes: (i) Qur’an (ii) Tawhid and Fiqh and (iii) Sirah and Tahdhid.
NOTE: CRS and IRS are offered alternatively as a student is not allowed to offer both.
QUESTIONS: a) Where did the CAN leadership and its otherwise discerning fellow travellers now threatening brimstone and fire get their idea that Christian Religious Studies was removed from the school curriculum and that Islamic Studies is being foisted on the country?
Please let us be careful what they use us to spread around in the name of politics. Even Jesus doesn’t support spread of falsehood.
Past Yakub Jonah.
Why should the government that is fighting Boko Haram encourage the teaching of Arabic studies even to Muslims? Arabic is a language of terrorists.
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If this is true, the Federal Government is turning into a Federal Dictator. The present Minisfer of Education must be a beneficiary of Northern Region’s educational policy where Arabic is taught to Muslim students only. To down grade Christain Religious Knowledge and upgrade Arabic Language is the hight of government’s insensetivity of the Nigerian people and must be reversed.
Bisi Akande, the purveyor of the new divisive religious education policy in the country was mentored by Bola Ige who was a christian. Akande was a civil servant before Ige undeservedly promoted him to the position of SSG in old Oyo state just because they were maternal cousins at Ila-Orangun. Shortly after, Ige crafted some accusations against SM Afolabi, his deputy and used these to remove him from office. Ige thereafter replaced Afolabi with Akande. Ige’s political geneology started from the late chief Obafemi Awolowo who was a christian. Awolowo’s only sister was married to a muslim. To prove Awolowo’s sincerity and religious non-partisanship, it was him who started sponsoring muslims to Mecca for the annual Hajj in Nigeria. Ige, also a christian at no time formulated any policy to malign islamic religion or create any untoward division between muslims, christians, traditionalists and other religions. Ige’s education policy remains one of the best in the country till today. It benefited all segments of the society and had no religious coloration. Bisi Akande had never used his political offices to benefit the people like Ige his mentor and cousin did. He should be called upon immediately to withdraw his obnoxious religious policy before it leads to anarchy in the country. NERDC board should be dissolved immediately because their dancing to the whims of Akande portrays the members as religious bigots who dont have the nation’s interest at heart. In fact, it appears that they are willing to create rift between various religions in the country.
Nigeria as a country has in its constitution freedom of worship, and from time when the British got the country to this unholy marriage we have respected each others’ religions and studied our different religions from time. The Federal ministry of education through its agency has tried to effect this sudden change without respect to the feeling of Christians in Nigeria. My position is that they should respect other people’s religions and not force Christian children to study Arabic, after all Arabic is not a Nigerian language. Those who are Moslem and chose to study Arabic should do so even to University. We should allow peace to be in this country.