Introducción y planteamiento del problema

According to CDC the two syllabuses in Zambia have the same aim of enabling the pupils appreciate the moral, spiritual and religious values and behaviour drawn from the four main religious traditions in Zambia. The four religious traditions are Christianity, Zambian indigenous beliefs, Hinduism and Islam (Curriculum Development Centre, 1984, p. 4). The two syllabuses, however, are different in content and approach.

4.2.1 Syllabus 2044

As outlined in the Background chapter, Syllabus 2044 is structured around five major themes which have three sub themes each. Scrutinizing the document called ‘Syllabi for Religious

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Grades 10-12 has exposed a discrepancy. While the Syllabus for 2044 states that the sub themes

are covered under four perspectives, namely; Present Situation, African tradition, Church history and the Bible, the pupils’ text book mentions six perspectives, which are the four mentioned above and an addition of Hinduism and Islam. While in the syllabus Hinduism and Islam are put under the teaching objectives of Present Situation and are supposed to be taught before the African tradition perspective, the presentation of the content in the pupils’ text book puts Hinduism and Islam after African tradition as distinct perspectives or sections. This will be something worth discussing in the following chapter. In my study, I will take it that the Syllabus has six perspectives. I have done so because I have chosen to follow the textbooks in this perspective and also because of the focus of my study. The current text book was published in 2009, so I presume that it supersedes the Syllabus which was published in 1984.These perspectives are studied under every sub theme so as to give the pupils a good chance of understanding the whole theme before they can be challenged to make their own conclusions which are relevant to their lives. For this study, the spotlight was on how the content of ATR is presented in the pupils’ books and how the teaching objectives are framed in the teachers’ handbooks.

Each of the four religious traditions has a section in each sub theme. A closer scrutiny of the content, however, revealed that the content of ATR is presented in the past tense in some sub themes. An example of presenting the content in the past tense is found in the sub theme of “Work in a changing society” where traditional practices concerning work are presented as (Curriculum Development Centre, 2009, p. 5):

• Work was divided according to sex, age and rank. • Work was done in common.

• Work was related to the basic needs of life.

• A person decided when to work and when not to work. • Everybody was a worker.

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My findings per sub theme are as follows:

Man in a Changing Society Living in a changing society Working in a changing society Leisure in a changing society

Tense in which ATR content is presented Present

Past Past Order and Freedom in society

Justice in society Service in society Loyalty in society Past Present Past Life Happiness Unending life Success Past Present Past Man and Woman

Family life

Sex differences and the person Courtship and marriage

Present/ Past Past

Past Man’s response to God through faith and love

Man’s search for God

Man’s turning away from God Involvement in the world

Past Present Past

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Some teaching objectives in the Teachers’ handbooks are also expressed in the past tense, but the situation is not as pronounced as the content in the pupils’ books. I counted 48 ATR teaching objectives in the whole syllabus out of which 34 are in the present tense and 14 in the past. An example of teaching objectives in the past tense is found in the sub theme “Happiness” where the first two objectives are structured as follows:

• Pupils should be able to list what made people happy in traditional Zambian societies. • Pupils should be able to explain how harmony and status brought happiness to traditional society (Curriculum Development Centre, 1984, p. 14).

While the past tense was noted as being prevalent in ATR, Islam and Hinduism has been presented in the present tense in the pupils’ text books as well as the teachers’ handbooks.

After examining Syllabus 2044, I turned to Syllabus 2046 for exploration.

4.2.2 Syllabus 2046

As stated earlier, Syllabus 2046 is mostly Christian Bible knowledge. Since the other three religious traditions are covered in the syllabus in comparison with Christianity, the focus of the study here was how many times ATR was compared and what tense was used in the content of comparison. I also took note of how many times Islam and Hinduism were compared to Christianity. My findings from the pupils’ text books are as shown in Table 2.

As can be observed from the table, African traditional religion has been left out in the comparison process with Christianity in four units while Islam and Hinduism have been left out only once, each. It should also be noted that the content of ATR in four units is presented entirely in the past tense while in the last three units the past and the present tenses have been used. However, for Hinduism and Islam, as in Syllabus 2044, the content is in the present tense for all the units

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Table 4.1: Comparison of Christianity with other religions/ Tense in which ATR content is expressed

Unit Topic Hinduism Islam ATR Tense of

ATR content

1. How God directs human lives    Present

2. Message of John the Baptist    Present

3. Baptism    Past

4. Temptation   x

5. Jesus’ power over disease    Present

6. Jesus power over evil spirits    Present

7. Kingdom of God    Present

8. Ideas about personal judgement   x

9. Prayer    Present

10. Teaching on love and forgiveness    Past

11. Suffering    Present

12. Reaction to persecution and opposition   x

13. Funerals burials and teachings about death    Present

14. Beliefs about life after death    Present

15. Early church    Present

16. Reaction to persecution   x

17. Ways of solving problems x x  Present

18. Attitudes towards work    Past

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20. Attitudes to use of wealth    Present

21. Attitudes to rulers    Present

22. Choosing marriage partners    Present

23. Attitudes to unmarried adults    Present

24. Husband and wife relationships    Present

25. Adultery and fornication    Present/Past

26. Polygamy and divorce    Present/Past

27. Attitude to family life    Present/Past

 Means the religion is compared with Christianity, X means not compared with Christianity.