The role of African traditional religion in nurturing the moral values of students in Kenyan Secondary Schools

Abstract

The African Traditional Religion (ATR)is part and parcel of the African Heritage which goes back many hundreds and thousands of years. It is a product of the thinking and experiences of our forefathers. The significance attached to ATR in the Christian Religious Education (CRE) syllabus has greatly reduced over the years and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) reports clearly portray that students have been performing poorly on questions relating to ATR yet it has a significant role to play in instilling moral values in the society today. Descriptive survey design was used in the study. Concurrent mixed methods is adopted in the study. This involves merging quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. The study used questionnaires which consisted of both close and open-ended items and interview schedule. Stratified random sampling was used to select 350 students and 80 teachers from rural and urban-based schools in Uasin Gishu County. Simple random sampling was used to select students from Form Three class and teachers from the sampled schools. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics which includes means and standard deviation whereas Qualitative data was analysed thematically. It is notable that ATR has helped to instil moral values in the learner such as respect and responsibility. The