Interest in religion only ‘skin deep’, examiners find

An examiners’ report on this year’s ‘religious knowledge’ Matsec exam has expressed great disappointment on students’ interest in the subject and squarely blames some teachers for failing to instil a deeper level of learning in their students.

A total of 3,818 candidates sat for the religious knowledge exam in 2014, but only 89 got a Grade 1, 709 got a Grade 5 pass mark while 705 failed.

“It is evident that candidates are not studying. Worse still, they lack basic and fundamental religious knowledge. Even common sense is becoming uncommon...,” the examiners note.

According to the report students were simply answering questions by reproducing information that they would have read, or heard during lessons or studied by heart, and failing in applying what they had learnt to concrete everyday life situations.

At times they do not even understand the question and as a consequence they give answers that are out of point.

“These observations may also reflect an inadequate and ineffective methodology which is still being employed by some teachers in the teaching of religion,” the report notes.

Students were “not always taught how to think deeply and critically, analyze and evaluate the significance and implications of church doctrines.”

Even some basic questions seemed to be difficult for some students. Many answered Genesis or the New Testament when asked what the last book of the Bible was.

Some were even mixed up when asked to define Holy Orders (a term used for the three orders of bishop, priest and deacon) – many replied that this is “when one becomes a priest, bishop or nun.” There were quite a few who replied that the Holy Orders are orders (“ordnijiet”) that are given by the Pope or the Archbishop, which one has to obey.

Markers even got the impression that some candidates did not even know the difference between the Old and the New Testament.

When asked to mention an account from the Old Testament that Jesus was commemorating during the Last Supper many mentioned “the Last Supper itself” or “when Jesus gave us his body and blood” or “when Jesus was going to die on the cross”. Very few gave the correct answer such as when Moses delivered the Jews from slavery.

In one particular question many just narrated the story of Adam and Eve childishly. Some even mentioned the apple, which is not even mentioned in the Bible.

While some candidates knew and mentioned the fact that before committing sin there was unity between God, nature and man, others just referred to Adam and Eve not bothering being naked in front of each other. Others said that man was created in God’s image and had the privilege to live in a garden “with plenty of food”.

While many candidates were aware of the consequence of sin, some candidates just narrated the fact that Adam and Eve took an apple from a prohibited tree and realized that they were naked.

“It seems that the snake impressed the candidates very much since every one mentioned him as the source from which all sin was brought about.”

Yet respondents showed a greater awareness of the Christian attitude towards the environment but very few can relate this to any Biblical narrative or passage. Most candidates spoke of the environment as God’s creation. Some argued that in all creation there is the image and likeness of God. A few spoke of St Francis as if he were a Biblical figure.

One candidate is praised for referring to the love of the shepherd for his flock, which stands as “a vivid example of God’s love for man, especially for sinners”. The examiners could not help noting that while it is “encouraging to find such answers when correcting the exam scripts… these candidates are quite rare”.

When students were asked about the afterlife some compared it to “a large garden”, while others described hell as being a place “where there is a lot of fire and Satan with his fork”. For many purgatory is a place where one goes to be redeemed from sin… and afterwards “God has to decide if you go to Heaven or hell which obviously is not the case.”