Abstract:

Character building is the optimum goal of education prescribed by all educational philosophies. A quantitative study, with ex post facto ‘retrospective’ design, was conducted to identify how does religious education affect the moral development of children. The study engaged a sample of 1350 participants from 4 to 15 years of children studying in public schools, madarisand out of school children from the province Punjab. A self-constructed tool, ‘Moral Development Interview Inventory’ was applied to the participants. The study held 3x3 factorial design. The data was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statists. The results revealed age wise ascending differences in the three groups. However, with growing age, public school students left behind the out of school children and that of madaris. At the mid years of 7-11, school goingstudents exhibited better moral reasoning than that ofmadrasa studentsand children without education. However, at the age of 11-15, the students having madrasa education exhibited the best increase in moral development than their competitors.

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