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230512P - FROM PARALLEL TO INTEGRATED TEACHING: THE CHALLENGE OF THE TMP

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Presented at a workshop on ‘Teaching Materials Project’ Gombak Malaysia on 13th May 2023 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB(MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard)


1.0 CRISIS OF DUALITY IN MUSLIM KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION

  • Modern secular European education: was introduced by colonial rulers who marginalized/neglected the traditional Muslim education system as well as its graduates. However, the traditional system has persisted and even thrived.
  • Crisis of duality in knowledge and thought: The crisis was due to 2 systems of education with different and contradictory world views and epistemologies. The educated elite of the ummah was bifurcated by education systems. Neither group had the integrated knowledge needed to solve the complex problems of the ummat.
  • The consequence of the education crisis was intellectual schizophrenia, intellectual stagnation, intellectual dependence, lack of innovation, social decline, and weakness (political, economic, military, etc.).

2.0 TRADITIONAL and MODERN EDUCATION: COMPETITION and COOPERATION
  • Muslim societies have an educational duality
  • One extreme only one system for example only the madrasat or only the secular school
  • In many cases parents want their children to get both and there are various models: morning and afternoon schools, weekend schools, and parallel teaching in the same school.
  • Traditional curricula like Deoband and Nadwatul Ulama
  • Mixed curricula (traditional and modern) like Bilal Islamic Institute
  • We have not yet reached integrated teaching
  • We will discuss the integration of both systems at the level of teaching materials.

3.0 TRADITIONAL MUSLIM EDUCATION
  • Traditional Muslim Education: Sciences (natural and social) declined with the general decline after the early Abbasid era. A traditional education system based on ‘ilm naqli (Qur’an, sunnat, fiqh, siirat, language) continued unchanged in its curricula to our day
  • Surviving institutions of traditional education: Azhar in Cairo, Qarawiyin in Fez, Qairawan/Zeytouna in Tunis, Dar al Uloom in South Asia, Pondok/Pesantren in South East Asia, Madrasat in the Middle East
  • Institutions of traditional education that disappeared: Nizamiya of Baghdad, Nishapur, Balkh, Herat, and Isfahan; Timbuktu University in West Africa; the University of Cordoba in Andalusia; Ottoman Madrasahs, etc).
  • New/modern institutions of traditional education: these are evolving and adapting to changing circumstances

4.0 IMAGES OF SURVIVING TRADITIONAL MUSLIM EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS


5.0 IMAGES OF NEW INSTITUTIONS OF TRADITIONAL MUSLIM EDUCATION

6.0 CURRICULUM OF DARULOOM DEOBAND
  • Maulana Qasim Nanotvi established Darul Uloom seminary on 15th Muharram, A.H. 1283 (May 30, 1866) in Deoband, UP, and decided to keep it away from politics
  • Darul Uloom Deoband's curriculum is based on the 12th-century Hijri Indo-Islamic syllabus prepared by Mulla Nizamuddin Sahalvi which is known as Darse Nizami.
  • Teach tafsir, fiqh, nahw, Arabic literature etc.
  • The basic course is 8 years but there is a postgraduate extension
  • Courses on English, computer, and journalism have been added

7.0 CURRICULUM OF NADWAT AL ULAMA IN LUCKNOW
  • Basic Islamic Sciences and Arabic
  • English has been introduced
  • Sheikh Abdulrazaq graduated from Karachi in Pakistan from an institute name Nadawtul Ulama
  • He established Nadawtul Ulama in Kampala which eventually became Bilal Islamic Institute

8.0 FORMS OF PARALLEL EDUCATION AT THE SCHOOL LEVEL
  • 2 Models: one institution or 2 institutions
  • Parents insist that their children go to Madrasat either before or after the formal school
  • In Brunei, there were two schools with different principals using the same building one school in the morning and the other in the evening
  • Some parents engage a teacher at home to teach Islamic sciences
  • Some schools teach the national curriculum in full and also teach a full Islamic sciences curriculum OR tahfiidh

9.0 BILAL ISLAMIC INSTITUTE, KAKIRI UGANDA: MODEL OF PARALLEL EDUCATION IN ONE SCHOOL
  • Dual curriculum: Islamic and Secular
  • Curriculum too heavy for the students
  • Graduates get a certificate as Sheikh and Sheikhat and the A-level certificate
  • Graduates go to Islamic universities in Muslim countries: Egypt, Saudia, Sudan
  • Graduates join the secular universities

10.0 PARALLEL EDUCATION AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: IIUM MODEL
  • Compulsory undergraduate courses in Arabic, Qur’an, Hadith, Fiqh, and Islamic civilization
  • The double degree with major + minor or major + major

11.0 CHALLENGE OF THE INTEGRATED CURRICULUM: TEACHING MATERIALS
  • An ideal is an integrated approach: teach all disciplines with Islamic integration
  • IIUM experience of Islamic courses in economics and psychology
  • IIUM experience in the Kulliyah of Medicine
  • The solution lies in integrating the teaching of each curricular course using integrated teaching materials
  • We cannot wait for the integration of the discipline. We start with the teaching.

12.0 THE FINALE
  • We are here to launch teaching materials for various courses at IIUM
  • Similar launchings were held before in Kuala Lumpur, Dhakka, East Africa, etc.
  • The future of the Islamic integration of knowledge will be through teaching.