Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Religious education in
molding the behaviour of secondary schools students, the role that it plays in guidance
and counseling and improving students' academic performance after elimination of social
education and ethics subject in schools. The objectives of this study were to; fmd out the
method RE teachers use to guide and counsel students in Religious way, investigate
guidance and counseling skills that teachers use in teaching RE, to establish the
importance of RE in molding of individual students' moral behaviour through guidance
and counseling and to establish the extent to which RE plays as role of guidance and
counseling in secondary schools. This study was descriptive survey of Eldoret East
District. Respondents were selected purposively from, 20 schools (51 %) were targeted.
This yielded a sample population of 360 respondents. The schools were selected through
stratified simple random sampling technique. The data was collected through
questionnaires and interview schedules and analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively with
the help of statistic package for social science (SPSS). The data was presented in tables,
graphs, frequency tables. The study is significant since it established the importance of
teaching Religious Education in secondary schools and how it can be used to mould
students' behavi•our by guiding and counseling. The study ca enlighten the school
teachers, school sponsors, government, Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), the ministry
of education through the department of quality assurance on the benefits of teaching and
learning of Religious Education in secondary schools. The findings of the study
recommends that; there should be teaching of all religions in Kenyan secondary schools,
RE should be revised to meet the needs of the learners, there should be provision of
enough materials needed for the teaching and learning of RE in secondary schools and
that RE should be given adequate lessons in secondary schools.
