An Assessment of the Religious Knowledge and Attitude of Third-Year College Students of Catholic Colleges and Universities of the Three Dioceses in Negros Occidental: A Basis for Religious Education Program

This descriptive-relational study was conducted to assess the religious knowledge and attitude of third-year college students to develop and or strengthen the religious education program to make it responsive to the challenge of the 2nd Plenary Council of the Philippines for a renewed-integral faith formation of God’s people. The respondents of the study were 366 randomly selected third-year college students who had already taken the Religion or Theology subjects as mandated curriculum for the Catholic educational institutions. Results showed that the religious knowledge of students when taken collectively is categorized as proficient in terms of their knowledge of God, Morality, and Sacred Scripture. However, students need to enhance their knowledge of the Church and Sacraments. Furthermore, when grouped according to gender, female students are more knowledgeable of their Catholic faith than male students who fall under the Needs Improvement category. According to school origin, both students from private and public schools fall under the Needs Improvement category, although students from private schools have a stronger grasp of the Catholic faith than students from public schools. Lastly, in terms of religious affiliation, both Catholic and non-Catholic students still fall under the Needs Improvement category, however, Catholic students have more knowledge of the Catholic faith than non-Catholic students. There is a significant difference in the religious knowledge of students when they are grouped according to gender, and school origin. This means that the college students whether male or female, from private or public schools, differ in their religious knowledge. Moreover, a significant relationship exists between religious knowledge and the attitude of students. This indicates that a Catholic student who has the knowledge and understanding of his/her Christian Catholic faith tends to follow it, while a non-Catholic student may know the Christian Catholic faith, yet we don't expect that he/she will follow what the Catholics are practising since he/she has also a set of religious beliefs that he/she follows is a non-Catholic. The recommendation for a curriculum change in religious instruction is hereby proposed.