Students in Kaduna State
1Agbo, Eunice Oada, 2Yaro, Linda Kiritmwa & 3Ayuba, Anita Bishara
1&3Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, University of Abuja
2Department of Social Studies, Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Plateau State
Email: 1oadaagbo@gmail.com; 2yarolinda@gmail.com, 3anitabishara@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Nigeria has been experiencing religion intolerance over the years and this has encroached into the educational institutions. Students are expected to live harmoniously among themselves but unfortunately this is not evidence in Colleges of education in Kaduna State which is the thrust of this study. The study aims at assessing the influence of social studies education on religious tolerance among the NCE students in the two colleges of education in Kaduna State. Three research objectives, questions and hypotheses were raised for the study. A sample of 250 respondents was drawn from a population of 940 NCE II and NCE III students of Federal College of Education Zaria and College of Education GidanWaya in Kaduna State. The data for the study was collected and analysed using percent, mean, standard deviation t-test and one-way ANOVA. At the end of the research, the study revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean perception scores of NCE II and NCE III students on the influence of Social Studies on religious tolerance with the p value of 0.006 which is less than the significance level of 0.05 indicating that the opinion of NCE II and NCE III students did differ in the perception regarding the influence of Social Studies education on religious tolerance in the state. While on the other hand, the influence of the subject matter on religious affiliation and college type revealed that there was and there was no significant difference between the mean opinion scores of the students based on college type and religious affiliation of the students respectively. The influence of Social Studies education based on college type revealed the p value of 0.001 which is also less than the significance level of 0.05 while the influence based on religious affiliation was given at 0.327 which is more than the required significance level of 0.05. Based on the outcomes of the result the following recommendations were given; government should encourage the teaching of Social Studies Education courses on religious tolerance by non NCE Social Studies students as electives so as to ensure that the citizenry has all information needed for ensuring ethnic and religious tolerance; teachers of Social Studies Education at NCE level should be made to update their knowledge and skills on how to effectively translate the content of ethnic and religious tolerance through seminars, workshops and conferences organized by governments and professional bodies; and Social Studies Education should be taught in senior secondary school to enable smooth transition to NCE level.
Keywords: Social Studies Education, Religious Tolerance
