(Bishop Stuart University, 2023) Mwesigwa, Fred Sheldon
Although Uganda is legally defined as a secular state, it is one
of the most ‘religious’ nations in the world in terms of its rich
religious though mostly volatile history and current record
numbers of religious adherents compared to those who
describe themselves as atheists or agnostics. The introduction
of Islam, Anglican and Roman Catholic religious belief
systems in Uganda ushered in an era of competition for
converts which inevitably led to conflicts, including religious
wars.
Formal Education, mainly through missionary
education, centered on promoting denominational identity and
despite government efforts to legislate on the need for
religious education to address the first national goal of
education of ‘promoting national unity and harmony’, the
Christian Religious Education (CRE) and the Islamic
Religious Education (IRE) curriculum have largely remained
catechetical and not dialogical, which compounds the already
existing tensions between members of different religious
denominations as illustrated by interviews done in schools.
There is a need to review the curriculum to address the gaps
cited in this article that seeks to address the multi-religious
composition of schools and society to safeguard against
religious tension and conflict which are proving to be endemic
