Public opinion about the effect of

the inclusion of religious study on

the improvement of moral and
ethics of the people

Submitted to:

Safqat chaudhury

Faculty Member of English Department

North South University of Bangladesh

Prepared by:

Shohana Akter,

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Acknowledgement

I want to thank almighty to give me this opportunity to do this research paper and I
thank Him for teaching me things which I did not know.

I thank my course instructor Shafqat chaudhury for inspiring me and encouraging me to

do this research paper on this following topic. I am also really grateful. I also thank my beloved
friends Priscilla Carbon for her views about this paper.

Without these people this task would have been really tough.

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Abstract

In the year 1974 the government included the religious study in the national curriculum and
the purpose of such initiative was to introduce the students to their religion with that shaping
their ethical values by the help of religion. The reason behind introducing religion to improve the
moral values was, religion known to be the most effective way to acculturate the believe and
norms with in a society. But in year 2009 the government has introduced a new education policy
which excludes the religious study. From this I got the inspiration to do this research paper to
know the public opinion about the effect of religious studies on the ethics and morals of
Bangladesh people. So my hypothesis was that majority believes that the inclusion of religious
study does have an effect on the improvement of our morality and ethics. So far the data I have
collected though survey and the secondary data I have collected supports my hypothesis. In this
research papers my hypothesis was proved by the support of the secondary day and the primary
data.

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Table of contents
Contents: Page no.

Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5-6

Background --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7-9

Research Question ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10

Hypothesis ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11

Methodology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

Data Presentation & Analysis ----------------------------------------------------------- 13-25

Summery of Research Findings --------------------------------------------------------- 26

Recommendations -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27

Conclusion ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28

Reference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 29

Appendix ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30

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Introduction:

Religion is the divine code revealed through the institution of prophet hood. The
Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Jews who constitute more than 87% of the population of the
world, have had their religion in this way. Religion is regarded as means to regulate both ethical
and spiritual life of men. This is also regarded as a mean to attain an honest and pure life in this
world and hereafter. Thus bearing of religion upon men is a reality and it can not be denied on
any pretext. Hence religion is as old as the origin of the universe.

In the present education system of Bangladesh religious education has been included in
the primary curriculum as a compulsory subject since 1974. It has been serving its purpose since
then. Recently government has introduced a new education policy where government is thinking
about removing religious study from the primary education saying it is not serving its purpose
properly.

The root cause behind introducing religious study in the primary level was to introduce
students to their religions and also teaching them moral values. The new education policy 2009
has given rise of few questions about the existence of religious study. One of them is, “Is
religious study helping us improving our moral and ethical values?”

To mention, we go to school to learn how to socialize with people. We learn how to

respect authority, rules, and follow instructions. We learn interesting, useful, and vital
information about the world and its peoples. History, mathematics, languages, art, music,
sciences, we are given a wealth of knowledge which, among other things, helps us to begin
carving niches, we learn about ourselves and where we may fit in to society when we are older.
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Much of what we are taught has moral content. The stories about good and bad, compassion and
love, hatred and stigma help us learning our potential to incorporate many aspects of the human
experience. Yes there is a moral impact of studying religion at school. Religion being a set of
dogmatic rules presents us models for behavior, codes of faith, tradition, identity, and all of the
above in regard to why we go to school.

Background:
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 According to Perle, Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos - moral character or custom.
Morality comes from the Latin word moralis - custom or manner. Both of these words refer to
code of conduct of human behavior. On the other hand , Religion not only holds the relative
position but also gives a universal standard by which the action can be judged whether it is moral
or Immoral, ethical or unethical. He also says that there are types of ethical or moral behavior.
One is Descriptive ethics which talks about the human behavior, second one is the Normative
ethics, which describes “how people should behave” and the last one the Metaethics which
explains how people often chose their behavior. (p.1)

Nobody knows the actual date of origin of Religion in human history. History of human
being and the history of religion have evolved side by side. The world view is highly influenced
by the religion: a set of dogmatic rule. We can see the evolution of many religions in the past
history. Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism are the widely accepted religions.

Islam can be traced back in 7 th century in Arabian Peninsula by the man called Muhammad.
But according to Islamic history he was one of the warners for human being and many came
before him. On the other hand, according to S.Radhakhrishnan(n.d.) [An Indian philosopher and
states man], “Buddhism, in its origin at least is an offshoot of Hinduism” (P.1)2.Though
according to Buddhism, this religion was founded by a saint named Siddhartha Gautama was a
spiritual teacher in the north eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is an eternal
religion which is known to have no beginning and no end. According to the great epic
Mahabharata [one of the religious scriptures followed by Hindus], the more approximate date for
this is 3102 BC. The Christianity known to be a former part of Judaism. Christianity began
spreading initially from Jerusalem by Jesus. The Judaism known to spread by Moses but
according to Jewish tradition it started with a prophet called Abraham.

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 One way or another basic code of conduct of all the religion encircles the values about right
and wrong, good and bad, God and demon or may be peace and destruction. The ultimate goal of
all religion is to teach people how to stick with the moral values in the worst situation because
that is the time when all the worldly teaching seem fake and recover or escape from the danger
seems more valuable. As Dostoevsky said that "Without religion, everything is allowed,” During
the danger the effect of ethics and moral get reveal.

The academic study of religious study started back in 19 th century. The study of religion is
basically theological but now days the study of religion has become anthropological. On the
other hand, many people think the morality and religion are synonymous. Many scholars also
suggest religion as a character study. The goal of education is also building good human
character among the students. As Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character,
stated, “Moral education is nota new idea. It is, in fact, as old as education itself. Down through
history, in countries all over the world, education has had two great goals: to help young people
become smart and to help them become good.”3Good character is not automatically formed
rather it is developed with the time, teaching, environment and companionship. As Hayens(2001)
mentions in his book Finding common Ground about eleven points which are needed to teach
effective ethics or morals to build a strong ground for moral character, these are

1. Promotes core ethical values.

2. Teaches students to understand, care about, and act upon these core ethical values.
3. Encompasses all aspects of the school culture.
4. Fosters a caring school community.
5. Offers opportunities for moral action.
6. Supports academic achievement.
7. Develops intrinsic motivation.
8. Includes whole-staff involvement.
9. requires positive leadership of staff and students.
10. Involves parents and community members.
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11. Assesses results and strives to improve.” (P.152)4

So we can see the religion is the best for of moral education and the best place to teach them
is in schools. Basically our schools teach up discipline and code of conduct. From the earlier
discussion we can also derive that the religion is the best way to teach these things to the
students. Because students spend maximum time in the school and school’s environment affect
their character most. Studies show that children spend only 38.5 minutes a week (33.4 hours a
year) in meaningful conversation with their parents, while they spend 1,500 hours watching
television. (American Family Research Council, 1990 and Harper’s, November 1999.) Since
children spend about 900 hours a year in school so it is seems to be the best place where their
character can be shaped effectively.

In year 1974, the Bangladeshi government included religious study in the national
curriculum. The reason behind the inclusion was the policy maker believed that religion is a code
of life, not merely a collection of some ceremonies. Human being has to live their personal,
social, economic and international life since the boyhood till death. So the knowledge about the
religion is incumbent. To become a good human being the child has to have the knowledge and
belief of universal brotherhood, equality, justice and principles. Hence the importance of
religious study is obvious.

But now in 2009 the policymaker again thinking about removing religious study thinking
it does not have any effect on our moral and ethics. So my hypothesis is I believe the inclusion of
religious study has an effect on our morality and ethics. I also believe most of the people will
also agree with me on this topic.

Research question:

In my research I was planning to investigate the developmental psychology, child

psychology, learning process, human motivational factors, evolution of education throughout the
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history, the concept of religious study and its moral impact, relation between religion and ethics,
education system and its present curriculum in Bangladesh, public opinion about the religious
study and so on. To do that I addressed these following research questions.

• What is morality and ethics?

• What is religious study?

• What is the relation between religious study and moral teachings?

• How the religious study usually taught in the school?

• What are the subjects religious study usually covers?

• How the education curriculums are developed?

• How the courses are chosen in school level for teaching?

• What are the impacts of education and religious based education in a society?
• What people think about the present education system and religious based education
system?
• Do people think that having religious study at the school level has moral impact?

Hypothesis:

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 The purpose of going to school is to become a civilized human being and morality is the
root of our civilization which comes with knowledge Whatever we are taught in the school level,
more or less contain moral contents. The reason for teaching all these stories is building a
mentality within the children of enjoining good and forbidding the evil. The religious study is a
subject in the school level which solely serves this purpose.

People even use religious teachings and moral teaching synonymously. In my view the sole
reason behind having religious study at the school level is teaching morality and ethics. I expect
most of the people will agree that religious study at school level plays an important role in
shaping the moral values and has a moral effect on our lives because every learning has a
subconscious effect on human mind.

Methodology:

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 For my primary data I have conducted a survey over the people of Dhaka city to know
their opinion about the inclusion of religious study in the primary level and its effect on our
morality and ethics. To do that I had prepared a questionnaire with proper options and
information. The sample size was 32. All of the people I have surveyed over have studied or is
studying in the school or madrasa. For my secondary research I plan to use the library and the
web. I will be taking help from following websites:

1. http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/mpacms/dc/article.php?id=46121

2. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001307254

• Why Study Religion? by Mark Wallace (journal)

• Moral techings and religious sensibilities by Mark chaves (journal

The books I have used are:

1. Finding common ground by Charles C.Hynes

2. “Religious education and child psychology” by Theodore E. Schmauk

After going through all the resources I have come with the result to support my hypothesis.

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DATA PRESENTATION & ANALYSYS

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 My sample size was 32. All of them have studied or are studying in the school level. The
age group is 18 above. The people who were surveyed are from different educationtional
background. Some of them are from bangle medium; some of them are from English medium
and also madrasa/Arabic medium. I have put forward eleven questions. Most of them provide
more than four options. This survey was kind of quantitative survey and does not portray the
whole population of Bangladesh. The result of the survey is presented in different kind of graph,
pie chart. Different colors have been used to indicate different aspect or options of the questions.

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 How do you define morality and ethics?

0.7 code of conduct

0.6
0.5
distinguishing
0.4 between right
and wrong
0.3
0.2 creted by
philosophy ,
0.1 religion and
0 conscience
Do not know
Percentage

Figure 1

The four different colors in this graph show the four different options. I have asked more
than thirty people about the concept of Morality and ethics. From the given option many have
given more than one answer as they may have thought that one answer is not sufficient. More
than 60% thinks morality and ethics mean the ability to distinguishing between right and wrong.
But 40% thinks morality and ethics are created on the base of philosophy, religion and
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conscience and near 1% thinks it means a code of conduct. So for the majority of the people
morality and ethics mean distinguishing between right and wrong.

Do you think there is a relation between religion and morality?

Relation Between Morality and Religion

Never thought
3.125

No relation
3.125

Varies from religion to 21.88

religion

To some extent
28.125

Strong Relation
4375%
Pe rcentage

Figure 2

Out of thirty two people 43.75 % thinks there is a strong relation between morality
and religion. To some extent they think religion is synonymous to morality and ethics. In this
graph the X-axis shows the percentage and Y-axis shows the public opinion. 43.75% people
thinks there is strong relation while 3.125% thinks there is not relation at all and again 3.125 %
says they have never though about it. But interestingly 21.88% thinks it varies from religion to

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religion. So we can conclude majority thinks there is strong relation between religion and
morality.

What is your perception towards religious study in school?

Figure 3

In this doughnut chart purple color represents “School is the best place to learn
religion”. Amazingly more than 96% thinks school is the best place to teach religion is school,
purple part of this chat represents that. Though less than 4% thinks the religious study at school
is not necessary at the school. But no one thinks the religious education should be confined with
in the territory of religious institutions like mosque, temple or church. Most of the people thinks
religious education should be taught in the school thus students can relate the religious teachings
with the current world and do not follow religion emotionally rather logically.

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 Why we need to teach religion in school level?

To Build a base of
morality
3.125
To have knowledge
about everything
43.75
Easier to get marksin
religiousstudy
62.5
People should know
what they are
6.25 worshiping
3.125 No need to teach
religion at school

Figure 4

In this pie chart these five colors represent five different options. When I posed this
question about reason behind teaching religious education at the school level sarcastically
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majority (62.5%) said “people should know what they are worshiping”. But 3.12% said it is
easier to get marks and again 3.12% said religious education is not necessary. Though 43.75%
thinks religious education is necessary to build a strong base of morality with in the students.
Majority wants religious education in the school to improve morality and to know about the
religion as in to gain knowledge.

“The new education policy in Bangladesh does not include religious study in school level”
– what do you think about it?

Have not heard

about it

Should teach to
improve morality and
ethics

They should teach

religiousstudy
because it helpsto
get good grades
It isjustified

0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 5

Here X-axis shows the options which were give to the people as answers and Y-axis
shows the percentages. Yellow column shows 92.62 % people have answered that they want
religious education in the school level to improve the morality and ethics and when I have
interviewed most of them said religious education has an effect on their moral concept. Red
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colored column says 3.125% thinks that religious studies in the school level helps in increasing
grades. Though 3.125% thinks the exclusion of religious study is justified in new education
policy and blue column represents this data. The green column shows 6.25% said they have not
heard about this matter.

Without religion the education system would be better-

Agree
0% Neutral
25%
Strongly
Neutral
Disagree
44% Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Agree
Disagree
31%

Figure 6

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 Figure 6 shows the survey result about the public opinion about the education system
without religion. The maroon piece of the pie represents the option “disagree” , the yellow piece
represents “strongly agree” and the blue pie represents “neutral”. 44% as in majority does not
agree with this rather they strongly oppose this kind of opinion. 25% out of 32 people prefers to
stay neutral about this opinion. Interestingly nobody out of 32 people agree with this opinion.
Total 75% people disagrees with this opinion.

Do you think education policy 2009 is a step towards immoral and unethical future?

It is not

40 37.25
35
31.25 Morality and
30 ethics can be
25 taught through
25
other means
Percentage 20
An ethical step
15
10
6.25
5
I have not
0 heard/thought
about it

Figure 7

Figure 7 shows the statistical data of the result of this question. Four different color of
column shows four different options and axis- y shows the percentage. Among 32 people 37.25%
people thinks it is an unethical step and 31.25% have not heard about this matter and they do not
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know about it. Majority consider it as a unethical step while 25% thinks moral and ethics can be
taught through other means as in through other subject. Rest of the 6.25% thinks it is not an
unethical step.

What do you think about the present education system?

 Reformation is needed

 Less teaching materials are given and not up to date.

 Creating difference with in the society by creating different medium of education (.i.e.
Bengali , Madrasa and English)

 People can not relate the knowledge with the practical life.

 Needs balance and modification

 Does not promise a good human being

 Based on secular philosophy and intentionally imposed on the third world.

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 Do we need educational reformation?

70
62.5
60

50
Percentage

40 40.625

30

20

10
3.125
0 0
We do Present one isfine To some extent Do not know

Figure 8

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 The figure 8 shows the public opinion about the education reformation. The dark blue line
shows the result of this survey. The x-axis shows the options and the y-axis represents the
percentage. At the first the blue line is on the peak which shows 62.5% thinks strongly that we
need education reformation. 3.125% thinks our present education system is ok. 40.625% thinks
to some extent we need education reformation. So we can conclude that the majority thinks that
we need education reformation.

Do you think there is a moral effect of studying religious study at the school level?

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 21%
Yes

To some extent
6% 46%
No effect at all

Neutral

3% Dependsoh how it
istaught

24%

Figure 9

This pie chart shows the result of the above mentioned question. The blue piece of the pie
shows that 46% thinks religious study at the school level has effect on our morality. The maroon
piece shows that 24% thinks to some extent it affects out moral value. The light blue part
represents 6% people are neutral and the purple colored piece of the pie shows 21% thinks it
depends on how you teach it. Only 3 % thinks there is no effect at all the yellow portion of the
pie represents that.

Do you think we should remove it rather than teaching it in a wrong way?

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 9%
9% yes

Reformation rather
49%
Dependson the
authority
33% others

Figure 10

This scattered doughnut graph shows the following data. The light purple portion of
this graph show 49% says we should remove it rather than teaching it in a wrong way. But the
red portion shows the opposite that 33% says reformation is needed rather than removing it. The
yellow portion of the doughnut shows 9% thinks it depends on the authority and rest 9% have
other opinion about this matter which is the light blue portion.

Summery of the research findings

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The critical analysis of the collected data reveals the following findings:

• Departure from religion serves as the most salient factor causing moral degradation in the
society.

• People believe that there is a strong relation between religion and morality

• The religious study has a effect on the improvement of morality and ethics.

• The public opinion is the religion should be taught in the school.

• Most of the people do not support the exclusion of religious study from the national
curriculum and they think it is an unethical step.

• People want reformation in the education system because they think the materials which
are being taught in the school level is not up to the standard.

• Reformation is needed in the whole education system not only in the religious study
because none of the courses are serving its purpose properly.

• Majority of the people think removal of the religious study is better rather than teaching it
is a wrong way. But near the majority number thinks exclusion is not solution rather the
reformation of the whole education system is necessary.

My hypothesis was whether people think that the inclusion of religious study has an effect
on the moral and ethical improvement. The findings support my hypothesis. The religious study
does have an effect on the morality and ethical improvement of people.

Recommendation

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 The exclusion of the courses is not a solution of the problem we are facing with the
education system. The exclusion of religious study from the national curriculum will not solve
the problem rather there is a chance of an unintended effect of this decision.

The reformation is the only option of this problem. The whole syllabus should be
restructured. The government should introduce updated materials and should train the course
instructors in proper manner. The religious study can be used as the form of character education.

Limitation

The majority of the population is Muslim in Bangladesh. So the survey lacks the presence of the
people from all religion. But I have tried hard to keep this report as neutral as possible and to not
to show any biasness towards any particular religion.

Conclusion

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 It is apparent from the study that religion both consciously and in natural way has a
profound bearing upon the life, mode, culture and the tradition of our society. Religion is related
with our root. Every thing had a subconscious effect if not conscious. So the religion also has an
effect over the majority. Our belief forms the norms and norms form the behavior so the religion
is deeply rooted in our lives. As we can not get rid of our belief so we should try to reap the
benefit of this believe. So far the study shows the religion does have an effect on our morality
and ethics so exclusion of the religious study will be an unwise decision. Our whole education
system needs a hard reformation process. Exclusion of any courses might harm the development
process rather we need to introduce our students to the current facilities and events with the
present courses thus they will be able to relate their education with the practical life. The
practical implementation is the ultimate goal of the learning process. The goal of the education is
to produce better human being and ethical values plays the vital role is shaping our behavior.

Reference page

Hynes, C.C (2001). Finding a Common Ground. In Character Education (chap.13). Retrieved

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 December 26, 2009 from: http://www.freedomforum.org/publications/first/findingcommo-

nground/FCG-complete.pdf

Ito, Y (n.d). RadhaKrishan and Buddhism. Radhakrishan and Buddhism(p.5). Retrieved

December 26, 2009 from: http://repository.ul.hirosakiu.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10129/1267

/1/AN00211819 _32_l5.pdf

Lickona, T (1999). Religion and Character Education. Phi Delta Kappan, 88. Retrived December

26, 2009 from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001307254

Perle, M.S (2004, March 11). Morality and Ethics: An Introduction. Dynamic Chiropractic, 22,
1-3.

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Appendix

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