Safety Education in the Context of Changes in Religious Instruction Curriculum

Abstract

Safety education holds a very important position in the holistic concept of teaching and education. Its subject matter content is related to one of the basic human needs: the feeling of safety. It is therefore a good thing that safety education has found its proper place in the reformed school system, which is proved by curriculum frameworks and programme documents for general education in the eight-year primary school, in the first-degree vocational school, in the four-year general education secondary school and in the five-year technical secondary school. This situation entails new challenges towards teaching religion.

Exploring the above-signalled issues, this study focuses on the need to integrate knowledge and skills in the scope of safety education into religious instruction. It has been considered important to supplement the issues discussed and to provide the students with support as regards development of social skills and appropriate attitudes, necessary to counteract various threats to safety. The study indicates the need to overcome the traditional approach to this correlation in religious instruction, which is reflected, among others, in copying the entire content from the curriculum framework of general education. It postulates the need for greater attention being paid to the axiological dimension of safety education. Additionally, innovative methods for establishing the correlation of religious instruction with safety education have been presented.