HEZEKIAH UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES & EDUCATION

Peace and communality are virtues in African culture that African Christian theology have enculturated. Since independence, both the church and the nation have battled disunity, instability, ethnic and class conflicts. This is a major distraction that has hindered the church from effective execution the Great Commission and mission. This study explores Pauline teaching on harmonious relationships in 1 Cor. 1:10-12 as a model for promoting unity in the Roman Catholic, Lagos Province, and sustainable democracy in Nigeria. Scholars have expressed different views on the divisions reported in 1 Corinthians. Grace (2011), Naselli (2018), Rhodes (2020) and others viewed the conflicts and division in the Corinthian church as a departure from the centrality of Christ. This paper however examined 1Cor.1:10-12 and the need to embrace peace as Christians and promote unity in the Church. The study adopts mixed methods which comprises the historico-critical method and the existential method in the analysis of 1 Corinthians 1:10-12; secondary data and participant observation. Peacebuilding in the church will serve as catalyst for sustainable democracy because many of the people in governance are members of the church.  The Church must imbibe the virtues of peace and communality as enshrined in African culture and the Bible.

This study examines the influence of religious-induced interventions on sustainable development of secondary school students from disintegrated families in South South, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive research design. The study population included 1543 principals, 3086 vice principals, 37,453 teachers, and  1,834,995 students in South-South Nigeria’s public senior secondary schools. A sample of 918 respondents was selected using multistage sampling across 102 public senior secondary schools in four South-South Nigerian states. A 24-item instrument titled “Religious-Induced Interventions and Sustainable Educational Development of Secondary School Students from Disintegrated Families Scale” (RISEDSSDFS), with 0.917 reliability, was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The study revealed a grand mean score of 3.60, indicating that religious-induced interventions strongly influenced the sustainable educational development of secondary school students from disintegrated families. Also, the category of the respondents’ administrators, teachers, and students) significantly influenced their rating on how religious-induced interventions influenced the sustainable educational development of secondary school students from disintegrated families in South-South, Nigeria (F2, 870=.000, p˂.05). The study recommended among  others that religious organizations should conduct pre-marriage classes and marriage seminars that emphasize love, forgiveness, tolerance, unity, honesty, hard work, prudence, ethical values and dedication as essential traits for building strong bonds, shared responsibilities, and stable families that support their children’s educational development in senior secondary schools. 

This study investigates the implications of community-induced strategies on the sustainable educational development of secondary school students from disintegrated families in Delta State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive research design. The population of this study comprised the 283 principals, 566 vice principals, 7,471 teachers, and 336,131 students in the 283 public senior secondary schools in Delta State. A sample of 377 respondents (29 principals, 29 vice principals, 87 teachers, and 232 students) was selected using a five-phase multistage sampling technique in 29 public senior secondary schools. A 24-item structured instrument titled “Community-Induced Strategies and Implications for Sustainable Educational Development of Students from Disintegrated Families Questionnaire” (CISISEDSDFQ), with a reliability coefficient of 0.914, was used to collect data. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed among others that category of the respondents (school administrators, teachers and students) significantly influenced the community- induced strategies integrated for sustainable educational development of secondary school students from disintegrated families in Delta State, Nigeria (F2, 351=.000, p˂.05). The study recommended among others that school administrators and community stakeholders should establish structured mentoring programmes and vocational life-skills workshops to provide students from disintegrated families with role models, emotional support, and essential academic skills.