The Impact of Sunday School and Madrasah to Religious and Moral Education in Igalaland

Abstract

This study examines the impact of Sunday school and Madrasah to religious and moral education in Igalaland. In the study of religious and moral education, the focus has been on Christian and Islamic religious education obtained from the formal school as it is embedded in the Nigerian educational curriculum, much attention has not been given to religious and moral education outside the formal school context hence, the aim of this study is to provide the relevance of Sunday school and Madrasah to religious and moral education in Igalaland. The methodologies applied in this study are multi-dimensional: socio religious and descriptive approaches. This is achieved through structured interview, focus group discussion, and participant’s observation and existing literatures. Findings from this research show that people learn about the communal, social, intellectual, ecclesial and moral dimensions of their faith in their various places of worship. This study recommends efficient methods through which Sunday schools and Madaris can be effectively utilised to bring about moral reforms in Igalaland. The study concludes that since education can be described as a system of imparting ideals and cultural practices of the society to the next generation in an unending process, the young need to be initiated into their faith according to the various stages in Sunday school and Madrasah.