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The madrassa issue in Pakistan
The madrassa issue
| Nov 15: Many parents, if they felt that their children would get an education in
public sector schools and be actually literate and numerate by the time they
complete the primary cycle, would opt to send their children to these schools
rather than the madrassas |
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A recent editorial in this paper has
referred to the observation of a cleric, Mufti Sarfraz Naeemi, protesting
against the unfairness of a situation in which the actions of a small minority
give a bad name to Islam and the madrassa system of education that goes back
centuries. ("A benign role for the madrassa?", November 11)
In the
Mufti's view, it is a system that retains the capability of interfacing with the
modern world. He makes the point that most madrassas, including the institution
that he heads, are not training grounds for terrorists. And that if there are
exceptions to the general rule, with some preaching violence or providing
training in arms, it is the obligation of the government to find them and take
appropriate action against the offenders.
There is much that is valid in
what Mufti Naeemi has to say. The law of the land should be applied to any
individual or institution that through what it propagates makes other citizens
objects of hatred or encourages militancy and violence against them. The
madrassa in this sense obviously cannot be an exception to the rule. As for the
perception that, generally speaking, most of the madrassas are producing
militants, more than one research study has established that facts do not
support this contention, including the one carried out by Christine Fair in
2006, focusing on madrassas in Pakistan.
That having been said, it would
be fair to point out that exceptions do exist and the fact that political
support and international linkages have meant that many madrassas have had a
measure of immunity from government action even when they may have been clearly
contravening the law. In part, the government looked the other way in the past
because 'motivated' young men willing to fight deniable and low-cost wars were
in a sense a policy requirement.
Meanwhile, there were badly thought out
reforms undertaken with respect to the madrassas. An aid-funded programme
supposed to run from 2002-2003 for five years provided for the madrassas being
given assistance to modernise their curriculum if they were willing to register
themselves with the government. They were to be given assistance, for instance,
with computers, the teaching of English, etc.
If the idea was to change
the mindset, it was strange one at best. If the assumption that the use of
computers and knowledge of English would change the worldview of the madrassa
students were valid, we would not have the UK, for instance, having to deal with
militancy issues among its Muslim youth. Most of them have had access to
both.
Even when violence per se was not an issue in madrassa education,
the orientation was by definition sectarian. Education, generally, should have
served as a key site for diffusing the problem of sectarianism that had been
aggravated during the Zia years. Yet there was no effective mechanism in the
years that followed to roll back the damage of those years on the education
system particularly by way of strengthening the madrassas and their increasingly
strident campaign against those belonging to other sects.
The problem,
therefore, with the madrassas is not that they are the perpetrators of violence.
In most cases they are not. The problem lies in their sectarian bent and
narrowly focused education that instead of taking forward Islam's universalist
message promotes an attitude of exclusivism and intolerance. It deepens the
schisms within society and creates in some ways a sympathetic environment for
extremism.
Clearly, what is taught in the madrassas needs to be much more
carefully regulated. Beyond that it is the parents right to send their child to
a madrassa to get a religious education. And this is the motivation for many in
the given circumstances. But few send their child to such an institution to
learn hate and violence. In any case for most families poverty is a driving
factor. A large number of madrassas actually provide free education to children
of very poor families in the sense that they also take care of board and
lodging. In a situation where the state provides very little by way of social
safety nets, this is sometimes the only alternative available particularly where
family size is relatively large.
One obvious way then for dealing with
the issue is to ensure that public sector education delivers. Many parents, if
they felt that their children would get an education in public sector schools
and be actually literate and numerate by the time they complete the primary
cycle, would opt to send their children to these schools rather than the
madrassas.
As matters stand, that is not quite the case. The high dropout
rate even at the primary level is at least in part due to the fact that there is
little teaching or learning taking place in a large number of public sector
schools. And without getting into a discussion over how much better the private
sector schools are, the point is that the very poor cannot afford to pay even
the low fees charged by many of these schools.
There is another dimension
to the problem. Public sector schools may not be promoting sectarianism but they
certainly appear to be doing very little to counter this menace. There is very
little in the direction set by the curriculum, the textbooks provided to the
schools (free but with the quality of the content leaving much to be desired) or
the orientation and training of teachers that is geared to countering the
message of hate and intolerance. This has to change even as a serious effort is
instituted for madrassa reform.
Abbas Rashid
Abbas Rashid lives in Lahore and can be contacted at abbasrh@gmail.com (Daily Times)
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Virtual university, revolutionary examination system
Islamabad: Virtual university of Pakistan has innovated a unique examination system whereby, Students have been given the
facility of making their own date sheets and their own examination centres. The
examination will be held at approximately 90 different centres in various cities
throughout the length and breadth of the country. More than 36000 students will
select their own date sheets with the time and date from the window provided. A
question bank has also been developed for every student appearing in the
examination. It is estimated that approximately 200,000 different question
papers will be prepared for the forthcoming fall 2008 mid-term examination. The News
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Education News| Updated: 09 Jan, 2009 |
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