This study aims to investigate what motivates students to study the subject of religion as well as what factors the students consider important to become motivated. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with eight students. As a consequence of Covid-19, these interviews were conducted through phone calls. The study is written from a phenomenological point of view since it focuses on students' perceptions and thoughts.

Based on the qualitative interviews, it is found that students find religion as an interesting and important subject. Although, it is admitted that the students are mostly bored and thus lose both motivation and concentration. The students believe that the teacher has a vast responsibility in awakening their interests and contributing to their engagement through different teaching strategies. The study shows that the students' negative attitude towards the subject is mainly that the teaching mostly includes history and that the factual knowledge that is inquired is usually a repetition from lower grades. It also turns out that the teacher's choice of teaching method and lesson planning has a significant role in how students find the topic of religion interesting.