Religious Tolerance among the Primary School Teachers in Coimbatore District

The present study tries to find out the level of religious tolerance among the primary school teachers. Descriptive survey method is adopted for this research study. The investigators have chosen 117 samples for this study. This study further tries to find out whether there is any difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on some demographical variables.

unity in diversity in the world. Because of that alone, India is inevitable nation in the world. India is a combination of different religious beliefs and practices. India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. The belief of the above religions spread all around the world. India also adopted Christianity and Islam from the ruling period of British and Muhalayas. In the path of India's history, religion plays an important role of the country's culture. Religious tolerance is ensured by India's Constitution. Freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right that is protected by Article 15 and Article 25 of the Constitution of India. Every citizen have own right to follow any religion in India. According to census of India 2011 report, India has the following number of religious people, From the above table, we can understand the population our every religion in India. Though Hindu's are majority, India is a secular country. The secularism concept is protected by India's constitution. It does not have a state religion but promotes religious tolerance in its constitution. All the laws of the country are required to be compatible with this constitution, and the system of government.

NEED FOR THE STUDY
Religious tolerance is standing in high position in the nature of India. All religion people are living as a brothers and sisters. Generally, all religions inculcate good principles only. However, nowadays, some people misinterpret the themes of the religions and do many antisocial activities in the name of the religion. Such antisocial activities threat to the peace, love, brotherhood, unity in diversity of the India. Unwanted religion oriented speeches and press releases create tension among the different religion people. It leads to intolerance stage. That is not good for India. Therefore, it is necessary to rationalize all religion principles. Maintain the religious tolerance is one of the main agenda of national development. So only the researcher has chosen religious tolerance concept for this study.
Developing the values among the young ones is easier than developing among the elders. So only, our curriculum provides opportunity for moral classes in primary section. Friendship, love, peace, trust, tolerance, sharing, non-violence etc can be practiced and transformed as habits in childhood period. So only, many experts highlight the importance of primary school teachers. India's Former President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has said that the future of the nation depends on the quality of primary education. The quality of the primary education depends on the quality of the teachers. Values are one of the aspects of term "quality teacher". So only the investigators have chosen this study for primary school teachers.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
 To find out level of religious tolerance among the primary school teachers in Coimbatore district.  To find out whether there is any significant difference in religious tolerance based on the demographical variables gender, locality, age, marital status and family type.

Title of the study
The investigators has taken up the research journal entitled as "A study on religious tolerance among the primary school teachers in Coimbatore district." Operational definition of the terms Religious tolerance: Religious tolerance is the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of other religion people. Primary school teachers: Teachers those who are working in primary section (children age of 5 to 10 years) in Indian educational system.

Religious Tolerance among the Primary School Teachers in Coimbatore District
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology | 93 Coimbatore district: Coimbatore district is in the western part of Tamil Nadu, bordering the state of Kerala. It is surrounded by the Western Ghats mountain range on the west and north, with reserve forests and the (Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve) on the northern side.

Hypotheses of the study
1. The level of religious tolerance among the primary school teachers is high.
2. There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on gender. 3. There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on locality. 4. There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on age group. 5. There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on marital status. 6. There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on family type.

Design of the study
The present study was designed to investigate the religious tolerance of primary school teachers.
In order to study this, the investigators adopted descriptive survey method.

Tool used
The investigators prepared religious tolerance scale. The Tool contains 20 statements. Each statement has three responses. Among the three responses, one response is the most positive; another one is the least positive one and third one is completely negative one. The tool was scrutinized by the panel of juries and validity established. Reliability of the tool is established by the investigators by using parallel form method.

Sample for the study
The primary school teachers in Coimbatore district is the population of the study. A total of 117 teachers were selected by using simple random sampling technique for this research study.

DATA ANALYSES
The investigators employed descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) and differential statistics (students "t" test) to process the data collected from the sample.

Hypothesis 1
The level of religious tolerance among the primary school teachers is high. From the above table 1, the calculated mean value 23.69 is placed in moderate level of religious tolerance. Therefore the null hypothesis 1 is rejected.

Hypothesis 2
There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on gender. From the above table 2, the calculated t value 12.93 is higher than the table value 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis 2 is rejected. There is a significant difference in religious tolerance between the male and female primary teachers.

Hypothesis 3
There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on locality. From the above table 3, the calculated t value 0.72 is less than the table value 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis 3 is accepted. There is no significant difference in religious tolerance between the rural and urban area primary teachers.

Hypothesis 4
There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on age group. From the above table 4, the calculated t value 5.88 is higher than the table value 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis 4 is rejected. There is a significant difference in religious tolerance between the age group of below 35 and above 35 of primary teachers.

Religious Tolerance among the Primary School Teachers in Coimbatore District
© The International Journal of Indian Psychology | 95

Hypothesis 5
There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on marital status. From the above table 5, the calculated t value 4.93 is higher than the table value 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis 5 is rejected. There is a significant difference in religious tolerance between the married and unmarried primary teachers.

Hypothesis 6
There will be no significant difference in religious tolerance among the primary school teachers based on family type. From the above table 6, the calculated t value 5.72 is higher than the table value 1.98 at 0.05 level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis 6 is rejected. There is a significant difference in religious tolerance between the primary teachers those who are from nuclear and joint family.

MAJOR FINDINGS
The following findings purely based on this research study,  Coimbatore district primary teachers had moderate level of religious tolerance.  Male primary school teachers had better religious tolerance than women primary school teachers.  Rural and urban area primary teachers religious tolerance level is similar.  Primary teachers those who are below the age level thirty-five have better religious tolerance than primary teachers whose are in age group of above thirty-five.  Unmarried primary teachers have better religious tolerance than the married teachers.  Primary teachers whose from nuclear family showed better religious tolerance than primary teachers from joint family.

DISCUSSION
From the analysis of the data, most of the primary school teachers have moderate level of religious tolerance. The reason behind this finding is that they may focus only their own religion beliefs and not concentrate about others. The male teachers have better tolerance than female primary school teachers. This may be due to that female children may have more concentration by the parents in the aspects of cultural inculcating. Primary teachers those who are below the age level thirty-five have better religious tolerance than primary teachers whose are in the age group of above thirty-five. This may be due to that young teachers may have more social and media exposures. Married teachers showed lower religious tolerance than unmarried one. The reason behind this finding is that married teachers may have some compulsion to follow some social, cultural norms of the family. Teachers from joint family showed lesser religious tolerance than the teachers from the nuclear family. This may be due to that teachers from joint family may have some restriction by the elders to follow religious tolerance.

Recommendation
Based on the study, the investigators recommended the following suggestions,  Government should ensure the celebration of different religion days in educational institutions.  All religion good principles may be introduced in morning assembly.  Simple versions of religious holy books, life history of saints should be added in the library reference section.  The Religious harmony cell should be created in every institution.

CONCLUSION
The present study is revealed that the religious tolerance of primary school teachers is moderate level. Hence, it is recommended that the government, religion leaders, political leaders, social workers and everyone should identified the weaker areas of religious tolerance and take some necessary steps to promote religious harmony and eradicate religious intolerance in Indian society.