An Examination of Some of the Factors that influence Students' Perception of Relevance of the Christian Ministries Programme of the NEGST

Abstract

This study reports an attempt to ascertain the extent to which a group of selected students in the Christian Ministries Programme of the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology perceive the courses offered to them in the programme as relevant to their needs. It was in effect an evaluative study which was done using the opinion of the students about the courses as the criteria for evaluation. The research further went ahead to determine the various factors that may have an influence on the opinion of the students on the courses in the proqramme. The data collection involved the use of a closed-ended questionnaire, part of which was developed usinq the Likert scale of summated Ratings to determine the opinion of the respondents. This instrument was administered to 18 students in the programme. Since the research also sought to ascertain factors that may influence the perception of the students, the statistical instrument used to determine these relationships as the Chi Square Test of Independence. The major focus of this research was to identify areas in the programme that may need special attention and consideration of those involved in the training of the spouses of theological students in the bid to providing a relevant programme. These areas were identified with the help of the literature reviewed and the results of the tested hypotheses. Generally, it was observed that students in the programme perceived the courses they were required to take as relevant except for a few courses.