The present status of the religious instruction in the senior high school level of the three selected Saint Paul schools: Its implication to curriculum programming

It is the purpose of this study to determine the present status of the religious instruction in the senior high school level in selected SPC schools with the aim in view of improving the religious instruction: its course, content, and methodology. Four specific areas were investigated: 1) The religious instruction program of Saint Anthony High School, Saint Paul College of Quezon City, and Saint Paul College of Manila. 2) The characteristics of the religion teachers. 3) The religious knowledge and religious attitudes of the students of the schools and 4) The implications of the findings to curriculum programming. In this particular study, the descriptive survey method was used. The tool for gathering the data were the general outline of the course, its objectives, content, and methodology, the information checklist and the questionnaires on the Philippine Attitude Scale and Knowledge Orientation (PASKO). The respondents of the questionnaires were all the fourth year religion teachers, and a number of 403 (18%) senior students from the three school\u27s total population of 2, 309 high school students. The responses to the questionnaires were tallied, presented and tabulated. Tables and bar charts were prepared, where frequencies were noted down with their equivalents in percent for the religious knowledge data. For the religious attitudes, the weighted means of each category were computed from which the group mean was determined. The findings show that: 1) The teacher\u27s syllabus with its objectives, contents, and methodology to be paralleled with the students\u27 knowledge and attitudes, and reinforced by the teacher\u27s honest self-rate on their personal and academic qualifications are invaluable sources of the survey to determine the present status of the religion instruction program of the school. 2) The three schools have an existing deficiency of the students\u27 knowledge on the Sacraments and the Church, which calls for a general evaluation of the contents and methodology. 3) The school depends upon the teachers to achieve its purpose, therefore, the religion teachers should be prepared for the work with special care, having the appropriate qualification and adequate learning. 4) The quality of religious instruction influences the quality of education received by every student in the class. So, the amount of knowledge a student acquires, depends upon the dynamism of the teacher to motivate his students to learn more effectively