The national goals of teaching Religious Education

i. The achievement of national goals of education especially for the fourth goal which states
that education should promotes sound moral and religious values this can be fully
realized through the teaching of R.E.
ii. For career purposes there are certain jobs which can not be pursued without knowledge of
R.E such as law, theology, anthropology, philosophy and counseling.
iii. To ensure full development of the students in all domains of learning. While other
subjects in the curriculum focus on cognitive domain, it is only R.E in the entire
curriculum which concentrates not only on cognitive but also relating and affective
domain. This ensures an all round student.
iv. It is the only subject in the curriculum which addresses the spiritual being of the child
which is an important aspect of a human being.
v. For the glory of God (Religious reason).
vi. For social reasons so that students can learn to get on with other people. It thus enhances
social relating in society as a whole (social reason).
vii. It helps learners to become more responsible for their own world outlook and to sort out
their religious beliefs (social reason).
viii. It is taught so that students learn to relate the world’s principles and values to their
religious beliefs (social reason).
ix. It is intended so that the learners acquire certain dispositions (knowledge, values and
skills e.t.c), thus education reasons.
x. According to Phoenix?s curriculum philosophy, the teaching of Religious Education is
justified in the curriculum because R.E is part of six broad fields/spheres/realms of
meaning which every individual ought to learn to function in human society.
These are;
a. Symbolic meaning- this refers to meaning as attached to symbols and it comprises of
disciplines of Maths, Linguistics and Languages.
b. Empirical meanings- this is meaning as derived from systematic, scientific observations.
It includes disciples like Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Sociology.
c. Aesthetic meaning- it is meaning related to people’s concept of beauty and comprises
disciplines like Music, Dance, Drama, Poetry e.t.c.
d. Synoptic meaning- this refers to spontaneous and in differential meaning as exhibited by
babies, lovers and poet.
e. Ethical meaning- it is meaning of prescription normative or obligatory kind and
comprises disciplines of ethics, philosophy of law, social and political philosophy.
f. Synoptic meaning
- Historical meaning; this is all reality from the perspective included are disciplines of
history, paleontology and evolutionary studies.
- Philosophical meaning- it refers to all meaning from national perspective. Under this
are all philosophical disciplines e.g metaphysics, cosmology and epistemology.
Metaphysics- the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence, truth
and knowledge.
Cosmology- the scientific study of the universe and its origin and development.
Epistemology- the part of philosophy which deals with knowledge.
- Ultimate meaning- this is reality absolute perspective e.g ultimate truth beauty,
norms, meaning e.g theology and study of world outlook. Religious falls under this.

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Titany answered the question on November 1, 2021 at 11:22