To meet global needs
Professor Hoodbhoy’s article on changing the madrassah curriculum to include English, mathematics and the sciences has several implications. My own research on madrassah education and that of others show that the present curriculum is indeed unsuited to preparing students for life in Pakistan today, and even unsuited for the limited aim of preparing Islamic scholars and teachers.
There are three stages to this argument. The first, and most fundamental, Stage 1, is the nature and structure of the subjects which we teach our students. The second, Stage 2, is the quality of our mainstream schools as measured both in terms of resources and in a failure to appreciate the issues of Stage 1. The third, Stage 3, is a consequence of the first two and has wider consequences for our society of rigid thinking, weak problem solving capability and a generally poor implementation of development plans.
Stage 1: Pakistani schooling requires just deductive reasoning from prescribed texts which are followed scrupulously, hence the importance of the lucrative textbook market. Textbook knowledge is considered as ‘revealed truth’, and students soon realise that it is not wise to question it. This gives considerable power to those who write textbooks as there is a captive market of willing minds awaiting. The subjects of the curriculum are varied both in their content and in their structure. By structure I mean the tests that have to be performed for the content to be considered true and consistent. Each subject has its own ‘truth tests’ as well as its own content. If we take just English, mathematics and the sciences, in English we apply tests of consistency of usage which although developed over time, show some gradual change reflecting a more modern society. In mathematics, tests of truth appear more absolute: a conclusion must fit in with the rules for numbers and relationships which civilisation established in historical times. The sciences are particularly interesting for each branch of the main sciences, biology, chemistry and physics has its own ‘truth test’. These lie within a broad scheme of testing by observation and experiment, which is then followed by a rule or theory to explain. You can see how scientific content is in some ways provisional as new knowledge and theories are always developing.
Stage 2: For effective teaching and learning, those involved need to be aware of the nature of what is being taught and learned. If not, then the learners and the societies they contribute to will be crippled in their responses to the world around them. In teaching the sciences, students are able to grasp concepts much better when they are exposed to practical experiments. This is the essence of classroom science. Inductive logic and hence creativity develops in the seeing and doing phase. Deductive logic is applied afterwards to check that anything new fits it with what has been ‘discovered’. The same approach applies to much of mathematics, but the poor international standards of teaching of this subject mean that only deductive logic gets used, and the reasoning to establish theories and rules are omitted. This leads to the widely held view of mathematics as the most difficult of the school subjects. The teaching of English as a foreign language is naturally inductive as comparisons are being made continually between at least two communication schemes, and the learner has to make judgements about information before making a correct deduction.
Sage 3: The lack of quality in teacher preparation in Pakistan and the minimal learning resources, other than textbooks, means that teachers are driven to rote instruction and deductive logic. The mental development of the learners necessary to understand what they have had to memorise, by default, is a root cause of the malaise affecting the country’s development. This has a direct bearing on the major problem currently facing Pakistan: the role of its madrassah education system. Even more so than the state system, the madaris with their poorly equipped teachers and minimal resources have not moved from the historical deductive — rote learning — approach to acquiring information. This is ironic because, as many scholars have pointed out, before the ascendency of a particular Islamic clergy faction 800 years ago, Muslims were applying inductive/deductive logic in modern science before this trend had reached the West. The writing of Jabir ibn Hayyan from this earlier time is actually quite shattering to some: ‘The first essential in chemistry is that you should perform practical work and conduct experiments, for he who performs not practical work nor makes experiments will never attain the least degree of mastery’.
Visits to madaris will reveal many closed minded students and teachers as a consequence of the teaching of the holy texts. Yet, you will find that some students are fully aware of the problem:
“I like my teachers and I respect them but I don’t like their way of teaching which is old-fashioned. I cannot say anything wrong about their teaching due to respect but I feel in this myself.” (A shia male student)
“I am fed up due to the typical method used by our teachers, I want to learn through group discussions, activity based methods. All subjects of Dars-e-Nizami are tough in nature. The lecture method or repetition method alone does not work. I am losing my interest and want to attend a college now. (A Jamaat-e-Islami female student)
And others appreciate the need for a broader curriculum:
“I would like to read science and conduct experiments at madrassah. I love to explore the concepts of science. I am fed up reading dry subjects like logic and philosophy because they have no practical work.” (A Deobandi female student)
“Islam considers science as an essential prerequisite for human survival. I believe there is lack of science education in madrassah. We are not taught science properly, and what little is taught does not include experiments due to lack of funding.” (A Deobandi male student)
Islamic scholars either administer individual madaris or are involved in their running. Interviews show that, broadly, government funding for teachers’ salaries would be supported if the curriculum were to be expanded. Although a few madaris do attempt to teach an expanded curriculum including the sciences, the quality of teaching is poor with a superficial coverage of content. There is a strong, but not unanimous feeling, that there should be no government ‘interference’ in curriculum matters. This makes government involvement problematical. A solution might well involve a voluntary association of a localised group of madaris under ‘progressive’ scholars which would collaborate in a development programme concentrating on curricular expansion and teacher training. Funding for a specific period might be sought from outside Pakistan. Successful completion of the programme would provide a model for future government involvement in a more extensive adoption. Such an approach would also acknowledge the impracticability of government enforced change on an unwilling Islamic clergy.
