Educating for human rights with special reference to the role of religious education

Abstract

A common concern for human rights can only be cultivated through effective programmes of teaching, education and information. It is important that youth are provided with the opportunity to grow up in a spirit of respect for human dignity and equal rights and a human rights culture is best built in our schools throughout the Overt and Hidden Curriculum. An essential pre-requisite for educating for human rights is that of providing the student with a sound moral basis. Thus equipped the individual can direct and guide himself and his life through reason and therefore to the right to self determination and self guidance when it comes to his actions. This is not to say however that for people to live, work and develop in peace certain limits or norms are still not considered necessary. Although historically, religion has been an important factor in moral diversity, such moral principles as beneficence, respect for life, fair treatment, fellowship, social responsibility and honourable conduct, which are essential to social life, are common to all communities irrispective of religious or political allegiances. The Religious Education teacher, in educating for human rights needs to show that not only are God and man compatible but it is right for man to be autonomous and to clamour for his rights while respecting the rights of others. This study argues aspect that by having Religious of Practical Theology, the Education ordered as an teacher can promote the concept of human rights and aim at creating individuals capable of entering into a community of practical theological reflection and participating in the action that flows from it. Focussing on one topic of the Form IV Religion Syllabus and using the Critical Correlational Method (which correlates Moral Development and Faith Development) as model, I have endeavoured to show that a person who has been trained in practical moral thinking from a Christian perspective is not only more likely to accept the human rights message but also to become himself a promoter of it.