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Lecture at the Diwaniyat Afriqiyyat on 25th January 2009 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard) Professor at the Faculty of Medicine King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh
SUMMARY
The education of Muslims in Africa suffers from the same deficiencies as elsewhere in the Muslim world with the exception that Africa has fewer resources (human and material) to deal with the problems. This paper discusses these deficiencies and problems as a preparation for discussing solution alternatives. The author focuses on educational challenges that are internal in the Muslim community and which Muslims can solve on their own. It does not address external problems that arise from marginalization, neglect or discrimination against Muslims. The paper presents and discusses 5 specific challenges: (a) deficiency in quantity and quality of education (b) duality or dichotomy of the education system: formal European education vs traditional Muslim education (c) Irrelevancy of the curricula to the African situation (d) divorce from morality (e) the brain drain. The paper proposes that African Muslims at the undergraduate level should be helped with scholarships to be educated within their own countries or other African countries so that they can know the official language and so that their qualifications can be recognized by the authorities. African countries with advanced education systems than can accept students from all over Africa are: South Africa , Northern Nigeria, Sudan , Uganda , Zanzibar , Ghana , and Senegal Muslim Universities in middle income countries within Africa (South Africa , Morocco , Tunisia , and Algeria ) or outside Africa (Turkey , Indonesia , Malaysia , India , and Bangladesh Africa involve epistemological and curriculum reforms in addition to providing schools and teachers. Curriculum reform will require a lot of outside academic assistance. Africans can on their own do a lot in providing the educational infrastructure. The wealthy African businessmen and those living in the diaspora should be encouraged to invest in education because it will have a good return for them and also will benefit the community.
1.0 CHALLENGE #1: DEFICIENCY IN QUANTITY & QUALITY
1.1 IGNORANCE AND ILLITERACY
Knowledge of a preponderant majority of African Muslims is inadequate, impaired, or distorted. There is pervasive ignorance of sciences of religion, ‘uluum al diin, and sciences of the world, ‘uluum al dunia. Religious illiteracy, ummiyyat diiniyyat, and alphabetical illiteracy, ummiyat al qira'at, are common in many countries.
1.2 MARGINALIZATION OF TRADITIONAL MUSLIM EDUCATION
Institutions that teach the classical Islamic sciences usually have the poorest facilities. The teachers are poorly paid. Their graduates have few opportunities in the job market. The brightest students are advised by their parents and friends not to enter these institutions because they will have no future.
1.3 MARGINALIZATION OF FORMAL EUROPEAN EDUCATION
The formal European education sector had been rejected by many Muslims during the colonial era not because they rejected modern knowledge but because they feared Christianization of their children. Some went to the extent of considering such education as kufr. It however became more accepted following political independence in the 1950s and 1960s. The situation today is not very encouraging. Teachers are no longer respected as important members of society; their leadership position has been taken by politicians, businessmen, and technicians. Teachers are despised and are among the lowest paid professions in the community. There is little respect for scholarship. Wealth and power are considered more important that scholarship. The consequence has been migration of the brightest and most competent from educational institutions to politics and business where their efforts will be appreciated more. This has had the effect of weakening Muslim education even further. The paradox is that attendance at European educational institutions is very high but the standards are low. There is quantity with low quality. No efforts are made to make the necessary investment to upgrade the facilities because education is not given the high priority that it deserves.
1.4 NEGLECT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
There is neglect of the empirical sciences in some Muslim communities that consider empirical sciences not sacred and not worth learning. In some cases these sciences are studied but not with the spirit of mastery, use and further development by research. The aim of the student is to get some facts, pass some examinations, and get a certificate that opens the door to lucrative employment. These students have skills but no vision or mission for the ummat and they end up serving only their personal interests and those of industrially-developed countries but not those of the ummat. There is no urge to research and extend the frontiers of knowledge. Home-grown technology is little and has little encouragement or prospects in the near future.
2.0 CHALLENGE #2: DUALITY / DICHOTOMY
2.1 THE TRADITIONAL ISLAMIC EDUCATION SYSTEM
In order to better explain the problem of dichotomy, I will start by giving a brief account of my own education in Uganda Uganda
Traditional Muslim education in Muslim communities was private with no government controls. It took place in mosque study circles, halaqas; elementary schools (called kuttaab in West Asia and North Africa, pondok or pasantren in South East Asia; madrasat or darul al uloom in South Asia). Education was most often attached to mosques. There were several teachers in a mosque each leading a study circle. Students were free to choose their teacher. Famous teachers attracted students from far away lands.
The kuttaab taught memorization of the Qur’an and several Islamic sciences in addition to poetry, arithmetic, calligraphy, and Arabic grammar. Kuttaab attached to palaces had additional instruction in social and cultural subjects necessary for government. Bookshops became another source of education with scholars spending hours studying the manuscripts. Homes of scholars also became centers of learning because of their collections of valuable manuscripts.
Madrasats developed as specialized education institutions attached to mosques. The Nizamiyah Madrasah founded in Baghdad Cairo , Damascus , Aleppo , Cordoba , Seville , Toledo , Granada , Murcia , Almeria , Valencia , and Cadiz
The general decline starting in the late abbasid era however did not make major changes to the basics of Muslim education. The mosque study circles, the kuttaab and the madrasat continued instructing thousands of Muslim youth. The system remained in all the various historical epochs free of official government control so the teachers enjoyed almost complete academic freedom. It formed the bedrock of the traditional Muslim education that exists until today. It is credited with having preserved the ‘aqidat and culture of Islam during epochs of decline and confusion.
I started my traditional education with the teaching of reading juzu 'amma the 30th chapter of the Qur'an by my father using the qa'idat baghdadiyyat. At the age of 5 or 6 I attended a mosque school in Kazo run by a son of Sheikh Kiti and I remember well it was teaching the qa’idat baghdadiyah and reciting the Qur’an. I then at about the age of 9 or 10 attended a madarasat at a Bwaise mosque during the morning where I continued studying reading the Qur'an with an easier reader called yassaruna al qur'an. After learning the alphabet I continued reading the Qur'an beyond juzu amma. I would read a page each day as the teacher corrected my reading. I do not remember I needed to read the mushaf from cover to cover to be certified as being a reader but some children in the class completed and a big feast called khatm al qur'an was made for them. The teacher also taught us how to offer salat in a practical way in a subject called kaifiyat al salat. We then started studying the fiqh of the shafi’e school using the book 'safinat al najja wa safinat al salat'. Later my father told me that the book after safinat was called ghaayat but I have no recollection of it. I also learned of another fiqhi book used in our area of which I have no recollection called al muqaddimat al hadhramiyyat fi fiqh al saadat al shafi’iyyat, We had a mandhuumat to learn the Islamic creed called ‘aqidat almawaam. We learned by heart in Arabic with a translation into the local language but I doubt whether I understood the messages conveyed.
It was about 1964 when I must have turned 11, that Sheikh Abdurazaq Matovu returned after qualifying as a maulana from Nadwat al Ulama of Karachi Pakistan and he set up as school in the mosque where I was studying. I moved to join his new school which was jumping ranks because he was teaching adults and |I was the youngest in the class. Within 1 year the school had expanded and it admitted youths who had completed primary Islamic institutions in various parts of the country and it became formalized as Nadwat al Ulama. I remained the youngest in the school having had only a few years of Islamic elementary schooling I sat in a secondary school classroom with people more knowledgeable than me. My aptitude for learning languages helped me because I could understand the Arabic texts.
Sheikh Abdul Razak was the only teacher in the first year. In fiqh he taught us the shafite manual umdat al saalik wa uddat al naasik. He also taught us a subject called al ta'aliiq ala al fiqh which was giving evidence from Qur'an and sunnat on various fiqhi rulings with the tarjiih of the shafite madhhab which I now find paradoxical because in Pakistan Pakistan surat al fatiha and surat surat Pakistan
After a year or a year and a half new teachers arrived and the school expanded. Teachers from Azhar and the Islamic University in Madina taught additional subjects. Sheikh Dajjani of Cairo India
The learning was not confined to the classroom. During weekends and in Ramadhan I used to go to the main mosque in the capital to study tafsir al jalalain (by Jalal al Din al Suyuti and Jalal al ddiin al Mahlawi) taught by Sharif Haddaad. There were also informal traditional channels of learning. Popular festivals called maulud were an opportunity to listen to scholars expound on many Islamic subjects. On Thursday nights people gathered in homes to recite a poem called burdat al madiih accompanied by talks on various subjects. I also read on my own after mastering enough Arabic. One of the most interesting books was ‘bada’u al zuhiir fi waq’ei al duhuur’. I later discovered that it was a collection of fairy tales and israiliyaat that were entertaining but were not authentic. My grand mother told me from memory stories from kaliilat wa dimna and alf lalilat wa lailat but I do not remember any specific one. I was also exposed to the science of astrology, tanjiim, also locally called ramli. Three respectable scholars in our community earned their living from it. One of them actually taught me how to foretell events but I found this repulsive and understood later that the reason was my scientifically inclined mind that later led me to the study of medicine. The same mind also protected me from many superstitions and deviations from the true aqidah and sunnat of the prophet that were common in the community at that time. I could not accept ideas and practices that openly violated common sense and the basic principles of Islam that I had learned in the Qur;an and sunnat.
From the earliest times that I can recollect I attended 2 schools: Muslim in the morning and European in the afternoon. I spent the year 1966 attending only the Islamic school because it was very interesting and busy. In January 1967 I left the school and entered grade 7 of the normal primary school followed by entry into secondary school in 1968 and high school in 1972. In 1974 I entered the medical school and graduated in 1979, I entered Harvard university in 1981 and finished my doctoral work in 1986 but formally graduated in 1988.
Although my formal exposure to traditional Muslim education lasted a few years, it made a permanent mark on me and made me study more on my own all the past 43 years. It made me feel that I am part of a great intellectual tradition stretching back to the prophetic era. The most influential part of the traditional system is the fiqh book that presented the world as a dichotomy of halal and haram and emphasized following blindly, taqlid. Being a child of 2 education systems I feel very qualified to address the problem of dichotomy or duality in education.
2.2 DICHOTOMY
Muslim education is suffering from the impact of incoherent and contradictory sources of knowledge. There is a dichotomy in the education system: traditional Muslim vs. formal European and ulum al diin vs ulum al dunia. There are competing and contradictory world-views. Some Muslim students study at foreign schools in Muslim lands and others are sent overseas for studies. Other Muslim students study at traditional Islamic institutions in their countries or overseas. Graduates of the 2 systems speak different languages and use different terminologies. Graduates of the European system may not know Islam or its heritage and have little self-confidence in their Islamic identity. Graduates of the traditional system may not understand the contemporary world or the world of the next century.
Dichotomy, being a cancerous disease that is unnatural and goes against the tauhidi-based Islamic civilization, does not end at dividing the ummat’s elite into two camps only; each of the two camps in dichotomized further. Graduates of the traditional Muslim system are divided between the conservative who live in isolation and do not engage or interact with the European civilization and the activist who actively critique the European system and defend the Islamic alternative.
The graduates of the European system are also dichotomized into two groups. One group is apologetic and accepts all what they learned from European sources as superior to whatever they have in their Muslim intellectual heritage. The activist Islamist group does not reject the positive aspects of European culture but is aware of its failures and refuses its wholesale importation into the Muslim world. They are advocating a contemporary Islamic approach, ‘asalat islamiyyat mu’asirat, that builds on Islamic tenets in approaching contemporary problems and challenges.
The conservative traditional and the apologetic European educated groups have facilitated and helped Europeanization of their Muslim societies in two ways. They have failed to understand the failures of the European societal model to be able to warn the ummat of the inherent dangers. They have innocently and in ignorance allied with Europeanizing forces in both the colonial and post-colonial eras in the false quest for material development and reform of their societies. The conservative traditional group has also contributed to painting a negative image of Islam by appearing to be backward, living in the past and being narrow-minded. The consequence of these various forms of duality is confusion in the minds of students and intellectual schizophrenia of the elite and society’s leadership. The masses and the ummat in general has had to pay a heavy price for the confusion among the elite.
2.2 INTEGRATION EFFORTS
Integration of the 2 systems has failed or has been difficult in several countries because it has been mechanical and not conceptual. The attempt of integration of the 2 systems at university level by introduction of western disciplines at traditional schools Integration of the 2 systems at the school level has many obstacles in front of it. The experience of Islamic schools is so far of limited success because basic intellectual and conceptual issues were not worked out. It was therefore not possible to develop complete curricula and text books reflecting Islamic paradigms; these universities and schools are a continuing manifestation of duality occurring in the same building.
3.0 CHALLENGE #3: IRRELEVANCE
Knowledge dispensed at great expense in many educational institutions is not relevant to the contemporary needs of the ummat and can play no role in meeting the challenges. This runs counter to the teachings of the prophet to avoid knowledge that is not useful, al ta’awudh min ‘ilm la yanfau. The irrelevance is seen in both the traditional and modern systems.
An example of irrelevance in the traditional system are the ancient manuals of fiqh that are used in teaching without explaining the spatio-temporal changes that have occurred and which call for new ijtihad to deal with modern problems. Students are given solutions to problems that no longer exist while they have no guidance on how to deal with the pressing problems of the day.
The modern system uses European models and textbooks that are not relevant to the local problems. Sometimes we witness the intellectual perversity of imagining or inventing western-type problems in the local situation in order to proffer western-like solutions for them especially in the area of gender and human rights.
4.0 CHALLENGE #4: DIVORCE FROM MORALITY
The process of secularization in education has succeeded in removing the moral dimension from the education. It has violated the aim of Islamic education to produce an integrated and complete individual. Instead the education system aims at producing a technically-competent person who is not educated in the full sense of the word because of the missing moral dimension.
Secularization has affected both the traditional Muslim education system and the formal European education system. The technical person may be an expert in Islam Law, shar’at, or a factory worker. Both carry out work in narrow and specialized areas and need not relate their activity to an integrated whole system.
Secularization of classical Islamic sciences occurred by studying and teaching them as academic subjects without the spiritual context with the result that people get knowledge that does not change their behavior or reform society. Such knowledge has no impact on the general public who hear it from scholars. This in turn has led to another type of duality between word and deed. What is said is not put into practice because of lack of conviction. With time the general public loses interest in the word and becomes susceptible to external non-Islamic influences.
The formal European education system, modelled on the secular paradigm, has removed morality and religion from education both in the curricular and the extra-curricular activities. The teachers and administrators, brought up and educated in a secular ambience, cannot understand and implement the integrated tauhidi-based education that Islam requires. They are also incapable of being an Islamic model for their students. De-emphasis of morality in the secular education system is responsible for the increasing mis-bahavior of youths in school that has in turn affected academic achievement negatively. The youths are taught the European concept that values are relative and that there is no absolute evil. The criterion of judgment is anthropometric i.e. what the human likes, prefers, enjoys, or finds more comfortable of convenient. It is an intellectual perversity that while the students are taught to question every traditional moral value and everything sacred, they are not taught to question the evils of modern hedonistic life-styles.
5.0 CHALLENGE #5: BRAIN DRAIN
There are two types of brain drain in the Muslim world. Some educated people move to Europe and America
There are no attempts to reverse the brain drain by understanding the push and pull factors and doing something to reduce their effects. The main push factors are: lack of freedom, no respect for human rights, no recognition of scientific work, being isolated from interaction with other scientists, poor or inadequate research facilities, and a poor socio-economic environment. The pull factors are largely the same as the push factors but working in the opposite direction.
6.0 DISCUSSION OF EDUCATION ALTERNATIVES
6.1 Several alternatives
There are several models of education for African children. We cannot say which is the best because each one addresses specific needs and has its advantages and disadvantages. The best approach is to allow all the different models to operate so that we can maximize gains. The relative allocation of resources to each model will be guided by local circumstances and local needs. It should be emphasized that African Muslims have rights of citizenship in their respective nation states. They should therefore strive to get their due share of national resources. This will be by entering national institutions whenever they get the opportunity. They should not marginalize themselves by limiting their options to Muslim-owned institutions.
6.2 Complete and vertical traditional Muslim education system
There is still room for a traditional Muslim education system that starts at the pre-school level and ends at the university level. Its aim is to produce religious leaders, scholars, and teachers. The system preserves and transmits ‘aqidat and culture. It is also a unifier of Muslims from different nations and communities because it tends to be uniform following historic patterns.
The system still has many problems the most significant being marginalization of Muslims from the main stream of society so that they are treated as a separate group or a separate culture. This in the end facilitates their discrimination.
The number of graduates from the system should be calibrated to the number needed and employable by the community. In the past overproduction resulted in frustration because there were no jobs for all.
Students in this system should also study selected modern subjects to enable sit and pass national examinations so that they have the option of joining a national university or an Islamic university. Studying modern subjects enables them to compete more favorably in the job market if they do not work as teachers.
Institutions providing traditional Islamic education can set up associations and federations to enable meet and exchange experiences.
6.3 Mixture of the traditional and modern systems
Many African students in practice follow the pattern of my experience by mixing traditional and modern education. There are four variants of this type. In the first variant children attend an Islamic madrasat for half of the day and a formal European school for the other half. A second variant is for the child to attend the formal European school for 5 days of the week and attend the Islamic school on the weekend. A third variant is to include classes on Islam in the regular school curriculum. A fourth variant is to confine Islamic education to school holidays. All these forms of mixture do not solve the basic problem of duality and are a temporary approach until a more definitive solution can be found.
If a mixed mode of education is chosen, supplementary efforts will be needed to address the inherent imbalance that gives more emphasis to the European system. The best approach is to set up Muslim student associations in the schools and universities. These undertake intellectual and cultural activities that orient the students to Islam. They can also organize special classes to prepare the students for examinations, Special programs can also be organized on intellectual issues regarding the application of Islamic values in various fields of social endeavor. Special tarbiyat camps can also be organized for the students.
Overseas Muslim organizations can strengthen Muslim presence in universities by providing support for teaching the Arabic language.
6.4 Integrated Islamic educational system
The best approach would be an integrated education system that taught Islamic values, the Qur’an, and sunnat fully integrated in the modern disciplines of knowledge. Attempts to set up such schools have been made in various parts of Africa with mixed results basically because producing an integrated curriculum has been very difficult. I presented ideas on the Islamization of the school curriculum[1] and the university curriculum[2] at various forums and I plan to write an additional paper on this issue as a guide to educators in Africa .
7.0 NEEDED REFORMS
7.1 Curriculum Reform in the traditional Muslim education system
Epistemological and curriculum reform are needed for the next stage of Muslim education in Africa .
The traditional Muslim education system has unique historical and future roles that necessitate its preservation with necessary reforms needed for better outputs.
Traditional curricula must be reformed to address current problems to enable graduates to play an active role in their society. The reforms must be carried out carefully to avoid destroying the strengths of this system as happened in Egypt and Northern Africa where attempts at modernizing the traditional system ended with its destruction. The reforms should build on existing strengths and should address the methodology and content of the teaching.
It will be a mistake to import curricula from Muslim countries because these may not be relevant to the local situation. Curricula must be developed locally with the involvement of foreign expertise where needed and must address local priorities. Local resource persons should be trained in all aspects of curriculum development so that they can play their roles,
One of the areas of reform in the traditional system is to make sure that the national language (English, French, or Portuguese) is taught. The students must also be exposed to modern social and natural sciences to enable them engage positively in their society with confidence and high competence. The traditional Muslim education should not be seen as marginalizing Muslims from the mainstream of society.
7.2 Curriculum reform in the modern education system
Educational institutions (pre-school, elementary school, secondary schools, colleges and universities) owned or controlled by Muslims should set themselves the task of solving the problem of duality. This will be achieved by reforming the curricula to make sure that Islamic values are included in all disciplines of knowledge taught this includes: natural sciences, social sciences, language, arts and crafts. The process of epistemological or curricular reform that has been referred to as Islamization of knowledge will have a far reaching impact on social reform. The eventual aim of the process will be an integrated education system. The details of this process have been addressed in several papers by the author (see http://omarkasule.tripod.com).
In situations in which Muslims have no control over educational institutions to be able to reform the curricula themselves, they will have to provide supplementary programs for their children to make sure that they integrate Islamic values in what they study at school.
7.3 Funding Muslim education in Africa
Uplifting Muslim education in Africa will require a lot of funds that cannot be mobilized in an adequate way by charitable donations. New and creative funding solutions must be sought. Self reliance must be emphasized; the resources for Muslim education must be generated from within Africa itself with outside help being sought in very poor regions or for specific projects for which local resources and expertise are not adequate. Indiscriminate foreign aid can be negative if it replaces and eventually destroys local efforts and local self reliance. African Muslims who migrate and work overseas should be involved in the process of educational reform. They can provide financial support or they can provide their expertise and skills in various areas of endeavor.
The first approach if funding was available is setting up Muslim-owned educational institutions from pre-school to university. These can be for-profit privately-owned institutions whose initial capital is from wealthy Africans or wealthy Muslims overseas who are willing to invest in African education. These investments have low returns but will solve a major problem on the continent. To facilitate the investment experts should draw up model projects that investors can adopt. It is estimated that a university will be needed for every 0.5 million Muslims. Each university should be supported by a network of feeder secondary schools which in turn shall be supported by a network of feeder primary schools.
The second approach is to provide scholarships for poor African students to study at African educational institutions while at the same time providing them with an Islamic input during the weekends. African Muslims at the undergraduate level should be helped with scholarships to be educated within their own countries or other African countries so that they can know the official language and so that their qualifications can be recognized by the authorities. African countries with advanced education systems than can accept students from all over Africa are: South Africa , Northern Nigeria, Sudan , Uganda , Zanzibar , Ghana , and Senegal
Scholarships should be made available at the postgraduate level to produce educational leaders who will lead Muslim educational institutions and at the same time find positions within the national educational system from which they can promote Muslim interests. They should be sent to Universities in middle income countries within Africa (South Africa , Morocco , Tunisia , and Algeria ) or outside Africa (Turkey , Indonesia , Malaysia , India , and Bangladesh