Comparitive Analysis of Madrasa and College Education

In Pakistan

MADRASA:

The word madrasa is derived regularly from the triconsonantal root, which relates
to "learning" or "teaching," through the wazn (form/stem), meaning "a place
where X is done"; therefore, "madrasah" literally means "a place where
learning/teaching is done". The word is also present as a loanword with the same
innocuous meaning in many Arabic-influenced languages such as Urdu, Hindi,
Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Indonesian, Malay and Bosnian. In the Arabic
language, the word implies no sense other than that which the word school
represents in the English language, such as private, public or parochial school,
as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim or
secular. Unlike the understanding of the word school in British English, the word
madrasah is like the term "school" in American English in that it can refer to a
university-level or post-graduate Islamic school. The correct Arabic word for a
university, however, is jami’ah. The Hebrew cognate midrasha also connotes the
meaning of a place of learning.

A typical Islamic school usually offers two courses of study: a hifz course; that is
memorisation of the Qur'an (the person who commits the entire Qur'an to
memory is called a hafiz); and an 'alim course leading the candidate to become
an accepted scholar in the community. A regular curriculum includes courses in
Arabic, Tafsir (Qur'anic interpretation), shari'ah (Islamic law), Hadith (recorded
sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic), and Muslim History.
Depending on the educational demands, some madrasahs also offer additional
advanced courses in Arabic literature, English and other foreign languages, as
well as science and world history.

People of all ages attend, and many often move on to becoming imams. The
certificate of an ‘alim for example, requires approximately twelve years of study. A
good number of the huffaz (plural of hafiz) are the product of the madrasahs. The
madrasahs also resemble colleges, where people take evening classes and
reside in dormitories. An important function of the madrasahs is to admit orphans
and poor children in order to provide them with education and training.
Madrasahs may enroll female students; however, they study separately from the
men. There are examples of all-female madrasahs.

In South Africa, the madrasahs also play an important socio-cultural role in giving
after-school religious instruction to Muslim children who attend government or
private non-religious schools. However, increasing numbers of more affluent
Muslim children attend full-fledged private Islamic Schools which combine
secular and religious education. Among Muslims of Indian origin, madrasahs also
used to provide instruction in Urdu, although this is far less common today than it
used to be.

A History of Madrassas
Seeking knowledge has been an integral part of the Islamic tradition. The early
years of Quranic revelations to the Prophet were embedded in the oral tradition.
Similar
to the
Verses of good poetry, revelations of the Koran inspired the people of Arabia and
they memorized the verses. However, as Islam expanded and it became
necessary to preserve
This vast knowledge, these verses were written down and compiled into various
chapters.
This compilation became to be the book of Islam, the Koran.
From early on, Islam emphasized two types of knowledge, revealed and earthly –
i.e.
Revealed knowledge that comes straight from God and earthly knowledge that is
to be
Discovered by human beings themselves. Islam considers both to be of vital
importance
and directs its followers, both men and women, to go and seek knowledge 1. For
Muslims,
The Koran is the perfect word of God, sacred and therefore cannot be changed.
It should
be memorized from start to finish. Once a person has memorized it, he/she must
reflect
On these verses and have a detailed understanding of its meaning and
interpretation over
the lifetime. A person who has mastered it would carry the knowledge of Islam in
his/her
heart and spread the word to the ones who encounter him/her. According to
Islam,
seeking earthly knowledge is also important because earthly knowledge
compliments the
knowledge revealed by God in the Koran and helps Muslims to live productive
and good
lives in this world.
Having understood the above logic one can understand why mosques came to
be central
to the learning processes of Muslims in the early days of Islam and continue to
do so to
this day. It was at the Mosque where Prophet Mohammad would convene people
to
listen to his revelations and their interpretation2. Mosques were the places where
Koran
was compiled. It was here where early Muslims seeking to solve their problems
in the
light of the newly revealed knowledge would come to obtain answers. The
mosque was
the first school in Islam. In the early days of Islam, there was no hierarchy and
every one
who could master the content of the Koran could lead the prayers and guide the
people.
The learned people would usually spent most of their time in the mosques
debating and
polishing their knowledge of the Koran and others who could not accord much
time to
this activity would simply seek their assistance in matters of daily lives.
After the death of the Prophet, when Muslims faced situations for which no
answer could
be found in the revealed knowledge of the Koran and the Prophet was not there
to guide
them, the Muslim scholars sought answers in the sayings and practical life of the
Prophet.
This led to the development of traditions of following the Sunna, the knowledge of
deeds
1 Boyle, Helen, Quranic School Strategy and Mini Needs Assessment, Trip
Report to Nigeria, 2002
2 Ahmed, Munir, Islamic Education Prior to the Establishment of Madrassa,
Journal of Islamic Studies,
1987.
3
of the Prophet and Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet. The mosque continued to
be the
center of learning even after Prophet’s death. This mosque based understanding
and
acquisition of knowledge worked very well for the Muslims of the Arabian
Peninsula
because the tribal traditions combined with the teachings of the Koran were
sufficient to
govern the lives of people who spoke the same language and had the same
cultural
background.
However, as Islam expanded to other regions and came into contact with other
indigenous traditions and languages, it became necessary to create a cadre of
Muslim
experts who would develop sophisticated writings and textbooks on Fiqa - Islamic
jurisprudence, Sunna – Prophet’s traditions, Hadith – Prophet’s sayings, and
Tafseer - the
interpretation of the Koran, to cater to the needs of non-Arab Muslim populations.
Thus
began the tradition of Madrassa, the center for higher learning the initial purpose
of
which was to preserve religious conformity through uniform teachings of Islam for
all.
The first known Madrassa is said to have been established in 1005 AD by the
Fatimid
Caliphs in Egypt. This Madrassa taught the minority Shi’ite version of Islam. It
had all
the ingredients of an educational institution. It had a library, teachers for different
subjects were appointed and students who were admitted were provided with ink,
pens
and papers free of charge. An interesting fact about this Madrassa is that a
catalogue of
inventory of this Madrassa prepared in 1045 revealed that it had 6500 volumes
on
different subjects, including astronomy, architecture and philosophy3. When the
Sunni
Muslims conquered Egypt, they revamped the Shi’ite version of Islam in this
Madrassa
and replaced it with the Sunni version, destroyed the books and manuscripts that
seemed
contrary to their version of Islam and preserved the volumes that related to the
earthly
knowledge. A huge number of books were taken to Baghdad where a Seljuk
Vizier
called Nizam- ul-Mulk Hassan Bin Al-Tusi, established the first organized
Madrassa in
1067.
In the new Madrassa established by Nizam- ul-Mulk two types of education were
Provid red: scholastic theology to produce spiritual leaders, and earthly
knowledge to
produce government servants who would be appointed in various countries and
the
regions of the Islamic empire. Later, Nizam-ul-Mulk established numerous
Madrassas all
over the empire that in addition to providing Islamic knowledge imparted secular
education in the fields of sciences, philosophy and public administration and
governance.
Nizam- ul-Mulk is considered to be the father of the Islamic public education
system4. He
himself is the author of a renowned book (among early Muslims) on public
administration called “Siyasat Nama”5 (the way to govern).
Even though a majority of the Madrassas during the subsequent centuries would
remain
the centers of Islamic learning, a large number of them produced renowned
scholars and
3 Ahmed, Munir, Islamic Education Prior to the Establishment of Madrassa,
Journal of Islamic Studies,
1987
4 Haqqani, Husain, Islam’s Medieval Outposts, Foreign Policy Magazine,
November 2002
5
philosophers who contributed to earthly or secular knowledge too. Ijtihad –
independent
reasoning was a special feature of these Madrassas. This is especially true for
Madrassas
in Spain where the Muslims ruled for almost 800 years and which is usually
referred to as
the Golden Age of both Islamic and Jewish advancement in science, technology
and
philosophy. It was in Andalusia Spain that Islam is said to have given birth to a
number
of scholars who combined spiritual knowledge with the earthly knowledge and
contributed to the preservation of Greek and European knowledge, which was at
the
verge of becoming extinct. ‘For Ibn Massara of Córdoba (883-931), man was
responsible
of his own history; Ibn Hazm of Córdoba (994-1064) was a pioneer of the
comparative
history of religions; and Ibn Gabirol of Malaga’s (1020-1070) fundamental work
was the
synthesis of the Jewish faith and the modern philosophy’6. Muslim scholars,
along with
their Jewish counterparts, pioneered the knowledge of rational sciences,
mathematics and
medicine. Many of these scholars have become familiar to students in the west
under
their Latin names, men such as the philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd), the
mathematicians Arzachel (al-Zarqali) and Alpetragius (al- Bitruji), and the
physician
Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr) to name a few.
At the same time, as Islam spread to further east, the Sufi orders of the Muslim
faith were
establishing Madrassas in the Indian Sub-Continent and Central Asia. In these
Sufi
Madrassas grammar, poetry, literature, logic, math and other disciplines of Islam
and
general knowledge were taught. As most of the knowledge about Islam was
either
recorded in Arabic and Persian, the Madrassas in Indian Sub-Continent became
places for
learning Arabic and Persian. Every student aspiring to reach the highest level of
the
Madrassa education had to learn these two languages whatever the mother
tongue of the
student. The most renowned poets of India at that time were, borrowing from the
Sufi
traditions of Persia and Central Asia, composing their poems in Persian.
These days of learning and scholarship in Madrassas would not last.
After the defeat of the Muslims empires one by one at the hands of the crusaders
and
political rivalries among Muslim leaders, Muslim learning and scholarship went
into a
state of decay, from which unfortunately, it has not bounced back. The defeat and
the
humiliation faced by the Muslims in terms of both the loss of material wealth and
power
and spiritual integrity, resulted in the Muslim Ulema (literally meaning the scholar)
of the
later days to shun any pursuit of worldly knowledge and go back to the basics. In
other
words, they closed the door to Ijtihad – independent reasoning. Going back to the
basics
for this cadre of Muslim scholars meant following those trends and gaining that
level of
spirituality due to which the earlier Muslims were able to acquire great power and
wealth.
At the time of the European renaissance, the Muslim education structure was
beginning
to decline. There was depression, lamentation and nostalgia for the lost glorious
days. In
this state of total gloominess Muslim Ulema, slowly gained power by becoming
the
spiritual advisors and deliverers of whatever was left of the education and the
political
systems. These murky times in the Muslim history had profound impact on the
function
6 Charafi, Abdul Latif, Once Upon a Time in Andalusia, taken from the website of
Jamat-e-Islami
Bangladesh http://www.jamaat-e-islami.org/rr/andalusia_charafi.html
5
and philosophy of the Madrassas all over the Muslim world. Many abandoned the
pursuit of rational sciences and focused exclusively on the teachings of Islam as
prescribed in the Koran. Ulema used the verses from the Koran to rationalize
their stance
that the earthly or rational knowledge either should not be taught in Madrassas or
should
only be studied in the light of the Koran, which for them had all the answers.
The last nail in the coffin of advanced learning in Islamic schools came with the
European colonial powers taking over whatever was left of the Muslim lands.
With
colonialism came a new modern system of education that sought to replace the
role of
Madrassas in any type of development. In the new schools, only those elite were
invited
to obtain admission that could be used to run the machinery of colonialism. This
resulted
in a dichotomy of education system – secular education for the elite and religious
education for the poor. The new Western powers also brought the idea of
separation of
state and religion, which for the Muslim leaders was synonym to heresy. The new
system
of governance did not require legitimization through religion and this was seen by
Islamic scholars as a direct threat to the established code of conduct for the
Muslim rulers
and their own power7. They were not happy with the new changes.
One particular region in which Madrassa went through a radical shift in ideology
was the
Indian Sub-Continent. When this region came under the British rule and a new
educational system was introduced, which was perceived to be a threat to the
Islamic
identity of the Muslims, the Madrassa system in India took upon itself the task of
opposing the cultural and educational hegemony of the British. It is important to
point
out, however, that the Madrassa system in the Indian Subcontinent was the only
one that
underwent drastic changes in terms of Islamic education curriculum and teaching
styles
III. Politics and Religion in Madrassas
Indian Sub-Continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), is perhaps the only
region where
during the last twenty years, politicians from different parts of the world have
found a
platform in Madrassas to advance their political agendas. Now same thing is
happening
in Indonesia where religious leaders are increasingly using the Madrassas as
launching
pads to attack either their rivals or other interests. In the Arab world, such as in
Egypt,
Madrassas in general are, at least, not perceived to be playing any noticeable
role in
18
politics. The Muslim Brotherhood political movement in Egypt, which is
considered to
be a terrorist group by the Egyptian Government, is not rooted in the Madrassa
system of
Egypt. It began as a political movement on secular university campuses, which
over the
years has used Islam to generate wider support. Most of the operatives of the
Muslim
Brotherhood have studied abroad and in secular universities in Egypt. While A-
Azhar
University is considered to be a conservative institution, there is no evidence that
its
schools or institutions are the ‘breeding grounds’ for Islamic radicals. It is true for
other
Arab countries such as Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and so on also.
Madrassas in Pakistan present a unique example of what can go wrong with the
religious
education system if it is not monitored and/or nurtured in a positive manner. They
are the
only ones that came under immediate fire after the events of September 11,
2001. Why is
it so? The following discussion addresses this question.
In recent months, many articles and reports have pointed out with alarm the
increase in
the number of Madrassas in Pakistan during the past 20 years. According to the
2002
International Consultative Group Report, the Ministry of Education estimated that
in
1995 there were 3,906 Madrassas, which increased to 7,000 in 2000.29
According to a
September 2002 article in the Dawn newspaper30, the Ministry of Religious
Affairs in
Pakistan reported the number of registered Madrassas at 6,528 enrolling about
1.2 million
students. Yet, in April 2002, Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs told the ICG
that he
believed that there were currently 10,000 Madrassas. However, he
acknowledged that
because of the problem of definition, he suspects there could be more, with as
many as
one million to 1.7 million students attending classes at least for short periods.31
Nobody
knows for sure how many Madrassas currently exist in Pakistan but some
analysts
believe the number is higher than what was reported by the minister for religious
affairs.
Some say that it may be as high as 33,00032.
Madrassas in Pakistan are a product of Soviet-Afghan war. For most of
Pakistan’s
history, Madrassas numbered in the low hundreds and focused on training the
next
generation of religious leaders. Beginning in the mid 70’s, the number of
Madrassas
began to grow. The reason was that the government of Pakistan failed to provide
education to the growing number of students. The rise of Jamat-e-Islami (an
Islamic
political party), and the active support from the Bhutto Government to essentially
declaring Pakistan a theocracy, led to the expansion of Madrassas where
children could
come for religious education free of cost. At the same time, the events in
neighboring
Iran were also influencing the process of Islamization of Pakistan.
The number of Madrassas grew at an even greater rate in the mid-80s under
Zia’s regime,
with financing from the Pakistani government, and the CIA. Large theological
seminaries
were established along the Afghan-Pakistan border to create a cadre of
religiously
29 Pakistan: Madrassas, Extremism and the Military, International Crisis Group,
2002, p. 2.
30 Ali, Zulifiqar, EU Ready to Help Madrassas, Dawn News, September 2, 2002
31 Pakistan: Madrassas, Extremism and the Military, International Crisis Group,
2002. p. 2.
32 Gill, K.P.S, Politics of Islam in Pakistan, Hindu Vivek Kendra, March 2001,
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0301/11.html
19
motivated Mujahidins to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Students in these
seminaries
were taught to fight the ‘Godless’ Russians and ensure that Afghanistan is freed
to be
established as a good religious state33. Students learned basic mathematics by
counting
dead Russians and hand grenades.
Religious fervor, support from the super-powers resulted in the defeat of the
Soviet
Union in Afghanistan. Then the military dictatorship fell in Pakistan. As
subsequent
governments in Pakistan, who were engaged in inter-political bickering, were
unable to
fully control these Madrassas financially, additional funds started flowing in from
private
individuals and Islamic charities. At the same time, CIA abandoned these
institutions and
thought that now that the Soviet Union is gone so will all the lessons from the
minds of
the Madrassa students who were trained to fight the Soviets. In addition, the
inability of
the Government of Pakistan to provide education for all and the precarious
political
situation in Afghanistan kept the Madrassa system alive in Pakistan. More and
more
Mujahidins were recruited to fight for the ouster of the corrupt governments in
Afghanistan and holy wars in other places such as Kashmir, Bosnia etc. In
addition to
Madrassas that were established to support the Afghan conflict, other sectarian
Madrassas,
flourished during the same time in Pakistan. The main purpose of these sectarian
Madrassas was to guard and spread their version of Islam.
An interesting product of this transition in the Islamic education system in
Pakistan is that
after the fall of the Russian empire, the focus of hatred in Madrassas shifted from
Russia
to the West in general. The boundary of hatred that was earlier limited to Russia,
the
Godless enemy, expanded to include the West in general and the United States
in
particular. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was used as a pre-curser by the Arab
financiers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to create a cadre of Muslim fighters who
would
not only, somehow, restore the land to the Palestinians but also strengthen Islam
by
restoring it to its original state – the puritanical Wahabi version. Those Madrassas
that
tried to propose the teaching of secular subjects so that their students would
have some
marketable skills were strictly forbidden to do so by the patrons in Saudi Arabia
and
Kuwait34. Thus, Pakistani Madrassas came under a vicious circle from which
there was
no way out.
In summary, the inability of the Pakistani government to meet the demand of
education
by young Muslim males; economic deterioration in Pakistan; the events in
Afghanistan;
open financial support for expanding religious education by Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait;
and U.S. interests in terms of using mujahidins for the fall of the Soviet Union;
played a
crucial role in bringing the Madrassa system in Pakistan to where it is now. As the
saying
goes, too many chefs can destroy the cake. The same thing happened to the
religious
education in Pakistan – there were too many players who were following their
own
recipes and not paying attention to the final product.
verses of good poetry, revelations of the Koran inspired the people of Arabia and
they memorized the verses. However, as Islam expanded and it became
necessary to preserve
this vast knowledge, these verses were written down and compiled into various
chapters.
This compilation became to be the book of Islam, the Koran.
From early on, Islam emphasized two types of knowledge, revealed and earthly –
i.e.,
revealed knowledge that comes straight from God and earthly knowledge that is
to be
discovered by human beings themselves. Islam considers both to be of vital
importance
and directs its followers, both men and women, to go and seek knowledge 1. For
Muslims,
the Koran is the perfect word of God, sacred and therefore cannot be changed. It
should
be memorized from start to finish. Once a person has memorized it, he/she must
reflect
on these verses and have a detailed understanding of its meaning and
interpretation over
the lifetime. A person who has mastered it would carry the knowledge of Islam in
his/her
heart and spread the word to the ones who encounter him/her. According to
Islam,
seeking earthly knowledge is also important because earthly knowledge
compliments the
knowledge revealed by God in the Koran and helps Muslims to live productive
and good
lives in this world.
Having understood the above logic one can understand why mosques came to
be central
to the learning processes of Muslims in the early days of Islam and continue to
do so to
this day. It was at the Mosque where Prophet Mohammad would convene people
to
listen to his revelations and their interpretation2. Mosques were the places where
Koran
was compiled. It was here where early Muslims seeking to solve their problems
in the
light of the newly revealed knowledge would come to obtain answers. The
mosque was
the first school in Islam. In the early days of Islam, there was no hierarchy and
every one
who could master the content of the Koran could lead the prayers and guide the
people.
The learned people would usually spent most of their time in the mosques
debating and
polishing their knowledge of the Koran and others who could not accord much
time to
this activity would simply seek their assistance in matters of daily lives.
After the death of the Prophet, when Muslims faced situations for which no
answer could
be found in the revealed knowledge of the Koran and the Prophet was not there
to guide
them, the Muslim scholars sought answers in the sayings and practical life of the
Prophet.
This led to the development of traditions of following the Sunna, the knowledge of
deeds
1 Boyle, Helen, Quranic School Strategy and Mini Needs Assessment, Trip
Report to Nigeria, 2002
2 Ahmed, Munir, Islamic Education Prior to the Establishment of Madrassa,
Journal of Islamic Studies,
1987.
3
of the Prophet and Hadith, the sayings of the Prophet. The mosque continued to
be the
center of learning even after Prophet’s death. This mosque based understanding
and
acquisition of knowledge worked very well for the Muslims of the Arabian
Peninsula
because the tribal traditions combined with the teachings of the Koran were
sufficient to
govern the lives of people who spoke the same language and had the same
cultural
background.
However, as Islam expanded to other regions and came into contact with other
indigenous traditions and languages, it became necessary to create a cadre of
Muslim
experts who would develop sophisticated writings and textbooks on Fiqa - Islamic
jurisprudence, Sunna – Prophet’s traditions, Hadith – Prophet’s sayings, and
Tafseer - the
interpretation of the Koran, to cater to the needs of non-Arab Muslim populations.
Thus
began the tradition of Madrassa, the center for higher learning the initial purpose
of
which was to preserve religious conformity through uniform teachings of Islam for
all.
The first known Madrassa is said to have been established in 1005 AD by the
Fatimid
caliphs in Egypt. This Madrassa taught the minority Shi’ite version of Islam. It had
all
the ingredients of an educational institution. It had a library, teachers for different
subjects were appointed and students who were admitted were provided with ink,
pens
and papers free of charge. An interesting fact about this Madrassa is that a
catalogue of
inventory of this Madrassa prepared in 1045 revealed that it had 6500 volumes
on
different subjects, including astronomy, architecture and philosophy3. When the
Sunni
Muslims conquered Egypt, they revamped the Shi’ite version of Islam in this
Madrassa
and replaced it with the Sunni version, destroyed the books and manuscripts that
seemed
contrary to their version of Islam and preserved the volumes that related to the
earthly
knowledge. A huge number of books were taken to Baghdad where a Seljuk
Vizier
called Nizam- ul-Mulk Hassan Bin Al-Tusi, established the first organized
Madrassa in
1067.
In the new Madrassa established by Nizam- ul-Mulk two types of education were
provided: scholastic theology to produce spiritual leaders, and earthly knowledge
to
produce government servants who would be appointed in various countries and
the
regions of the Islamic empire. Later, Nizam-ul-Mulk established numerous
Madrassas all
over the empire that in addition to providing Islamic knowledge imparted secular
education in the fields of sciences, philosophy and public administration and
governance.
Nizam- ul-Mulk is considered to be the father of the Islamic public education
system4. He
himself is the author of a renowned book (among early Muslims) on public
administration called “Siyasat Nama”5 (the way to govern).
Even though a majority of the Madrassas during the subsequent centuries would
remain
the centers of Islamic learning, a large number of them produced renowned
scholars and
3 Ahmed, Munir, Islamic Education Prior to the Establishment of Madrassa,
Journal of Islamic Studies,
1987
4 Haqqani, Husain, Islam’s Medieval Outposts, Foreign Policy Magazine,
November 2002
5 www.Islamicweb.com
4
philosophers who contributed to earthly or secular knowledge too. Ijtihad –
independent
reasoning was a special feature of these Madrassas. This is especially true for
Madrassas
in Spain where the Muslims ruled for almost 800 years and which is usually
referred to as
the Golden Age of both Islamic and Jewish advancement in science, technology
and
philosophy. It was in Andalusia Spain that Islam is said to have given birth to a
number
of scholars who combined spiritual knowledge with the earthly knowledge and
contributed to the preservation of Greek and European knowledge, which was at
the
verge of becoming extinct. ‘For Ibn Massara of Córdoba (883-931), man was
responsible
of his own history; Ibn Hazm of Córdoba (994-1064) was a pioneer of the
comparative
history of religions; and Ibn Gabirol of Malaga’s (1020-1070) fundamental work
was the
synthesis of the Jewish faith and the modern philosophy’6. Muslim scholars,
along with
their Jewish counterparts, pioneered the knowledge of rational sciences,
mathematics and
medicine. Many of these scholars have become familiar to students in the west
under
their Latin names, men such as the philosopher Averroes (Ibn Rushd), the
mathematicians Arzachel (al-Zarqali) and Alpetragius (al- Bitruji), and the
physician
Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr) to name a few.
At the same time, as Islam spread to further east, the Sufi orders of the Muslim
faith were
establishing Madrassas in the Indian Sub-Continent and Central Asia. In these
Sufi
Madrassas grammar, poetry, literature, logic, math and other disciplines of Islam
and
general knowledge were taught. As most of the knowledge about Islam was
either
recorded in Arabic and Persian, the Madrassas in Indian Sub-Continent became
places for
learning Arabic and Persian. Every student aspiring to reach the highest level of
the
Madrassa education had to learn these two languages whatever the mother
tongue of the
student. The most renowned poets of India at that time were, borrowing from the
Sufi
traditions of Persia and Central Asia, composing their poems in Persian.
These days of learning and scholarship in Madrassas would not last.
After the defeat of the Muslims empires one by one at the hands of the crusaders
and
political rivalries among Muslim leaders, Muslim learning and scholarship went
into a
state of decay, from which unfortunately, it has not bounced back. The defeat and
the
humiliation faced by the Muslims in terms of both the loss of material wealth and
power
and spiritual integrity, resulted in the Muslim Ulema (literally meaning the scholar)
of the
later days to shun any pursuit of worldly knowledge and go back to the basics. In
other
words, they closed the door to Ijtihad – independent reasoning. Going back to the
basics
for this cadre of Muslim scholars meant following those trends and gaining that
level of
spirituality due to which the earlier Muslims were able to acquire great power and
wealth.
At the time of the European renaissance, the Muslim education structure was
beginning
to decline. There was depression, lamentation and nostalgia for the lost glorious
days. In
this state of total gloominess Muslim Ulema, slowly gained power by becoming
the
spiritual advisors and deliverers of whatever was left of the education and the
political
systems. These murky times in the Muslim history had profound impact on the
function
6 Charafi, Abdul Latif, Once Upon a Time in Andalusia, taken from the website of
Jamat-e-Islami
Bangladesh http://www.jamaat-e-islami.org/rr/andalusia_charafi.html
5
and philosophy of the Madrassas all over the Muslim world. Many abandoned the
pursuit of rational sciences and focused exclusively on the teachings of Islam as
prescribed in the Koran. Ulema used the verses from the Koran to rationalize
their stance
that the earthly or rational knowledge either should not be taught in Madrassas or
should
only be studied in the light of the Koran, which for them had all the answers.
The last nail in the coffin of advanced learning in Islamic schools came with the
European colonial powers taking over whatever was left of the Muslim lands.
With
colonialism came a new modern system of education that sought to replace the
role of
Madrassas in any type of development. In the new schools, only those elite were
invited
to obtain admission that could be used to run the machinery of colonialism. This
resulted
in a dichotomy of education system – secular education for the elite and religious
education for the poor. The new Western powers also brought the idea of
separation of
state and religion, which for the Muslim leaders was synonym to heresy. The new
system
of governance did not require legitimization through religion and this was seen by
Islamic scholars as a direct threat to the established code of conduct for the
Muslim rulers
and their own power7. They were not happy with the new changes.
One particular region in which Madrassa went through a radical shift in ideology
was the
Indian Sub-Continent. When this region came under the British rule and a new
educational system was introduced, which was perceived to be a threat to the
Islamic
identity of the Muslims, the Madrassa system in India took upon itself the task of
opposing the cultural and educational hegemony of the British. It is important to
point
out, however, that the Madrassa system in the Indian Subcontinent was the only
one that
underwent drastic changes in terms of Islamic education curriculum and teaching
styles
III. Politics and Religion in Madrassas
Indian Sub-Continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), is perhaps the only
region where
during the last twenty years, politicians from different parts of the world have
found a
platform in Madrassas to advance their political agendas. Now same thing is
happening
in Indonesia where religious leaders are increasingly using the Madrassas as
launching
pads to attack either their rivals or other interests. In the Arab world, such as in
Egypt,
Madrassas in general are, at least, not perceived to be playing any noticeable
role in
18
politics. The Muslim Brotherhood political movement in Egypt, which is
considered to
be a terrorist group by the Egyptian Government, is not rooted in the Madrassa
system of
Egypt. It began as a political movement on secular university campuses, which
over the
years has used Islam to generate wider support. Most of the operatives of the
Muslim
Brotherhood have studied abroad and in secular universities in Egypt. While A-
Azhar
University is considered to be a conservative institution, there is no evidence that
its
schools or institutions are the ‘breeding grounds’ for Islamic radicals. It is true for
other
Arab countries such as Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and so on also.
Madrassas in Pakistan present a unique example of what can go wrong with the
religious
education system if it is not monitored and/or nurtured in a positive manner. They
are the
only ones that came under immediate fire after the events of September 11,
2001. Why is
it so? The following discussion addresses this question.
In recent months, many articles and reports have pointed out with alarm the
increase in
the number of Madrassas in Pakistan during the past 20 years. According to the
2002
International Consultative Group Report, the Ministry of Education estimated that
in
1995 there were 3,906 Madrassas, which increased to 7,000 in 2000.29
According to a
September 2002 article in the Dawn newspaper30, the Ministry of Religious
Affairs in
Pakistan reported the number of registered Madrassas at 6,528 enrolling about
1.2 million
students. Yet, in April 2002, Pakistan’s minister for religious affairs told the ICG
that he
believed that there were currently 10,000 Madrassas. However, he
acknowledged that
because of the problem of definition, he suspects there could be more, with as
many as
one million to 1.7 million students attending classes at least for short periods.31
Nobody
knows for sure how many Madrassas currently exist in Pakistan but some
analysts
believe the number is higher than what was reported by the minister for religious
affairs.
Some say that it may be as high as 33,00032.
Madrassas in Pakistan are a product of Soviet-Afghan war. For most of
Pakistan’s
history, Madrassas numbered in the low hundreds and focused on training the
next
generation of religious leaders. Beginning in the mid 70’s, the number of
Madrassas
began to grow. The reason was that the government of Pakistan failed to provide
education to the growing number of students. The rise of Jamat-e-Islami (an
Islamic
political party), and the active support from the Bhutto Government to essentially
declaring Pakistan a theocracy, led to the expansion of Madrassas where
children could
come for religious education free of cost. At the same time, the events in
neighboring
Iran were also influencing the process of Islamization of Pakistan.
The number of Madrassas grew at an even greater rate in the mid-80s under
Zia’s regime,
with financing from the Pakistani government, and the CIA. Large theological
seminaries
were established along the Afghan-Pakistan border to create a cadre of
religiously
29 Pakistan: Madrassas, Extremism and the Military, International Crisis Group,
2002, p. 2.
30 Ali, Zulifiqar, EU Ready to Help Madrassas, Dawn News, September 2, 2002
31 Pakistan: Madrassas, Extremism and the Military, International Crisis Group,
2002. p. 2.
32 Gill, K.P.S, Politics of Islam in Pakistan, Hindu Vivek Kendra, March 2001,
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0301/11.html
19
motivated Mujahidins to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Students in these
seminaries
were taught to fight the ‘Godless’ Russians and ensure that Afghanistan is freed
to be
established as a good religious state33. Students learned basic mathematics by
counting
dead Russians and hand grenades.
Religious fervor, support from the super-powers resulted in the defeat of the
Soviet
Union in Afghanistan. Then the military dictatorship fell in Pakistan. As
subsequent
governments in Pakistan, who were engaged in inter-political bickering, were
unable to
fully control these Madrassas financially, additional funds started flowing in from
private
individuals and Islamic charities. At the same time, CIA abandoned these
institutions and
thought that now that the Soviet Union is gone so will all the lessons from the
minds of
the Madrassa students who were trained to fight the Soviets. In addition, the
inability of
the Government of Pakistan to provide education for all and the precarious
political
situation in Afghanistan kept the Madrassa system alive in Pakistan. More and
more
Mujahidins were recruited to fight for the ouster of the corrupt governments in
Afghanistan and holy wars in other places such as Kashmir, Bosnia etc. In
addition to
Madrassas that were established to support the Afghan conflict, other sectarian
Madrassas,
flourished during the same time in Pakistan. The main purpose of these sectarian
Madrassas was to guard and spread their version of Islam.
An interesting product of this transition in the Islamic education system in
Pakistan is that
after the fall of the Russian empire, the focus of hatred in Madrassas shifted from
Russia
to the West in general. The boundary of hatred that was earlier limited to Russia,
the
Godless enemy, expanded to include the West in general and the United States
in
particular. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict was used as a pre-curser by the Arab
financiers from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to create a cadre of Muslim fighters who
would
not only, somehow, restore the land to the Palestinians but also strengthen Islam
by
restoring it to its original state – the puritanical Wahabi version. Those Madrassas
that
tried to propose the teaching of secular subjects so that their students would
have some
marketable skills were strictly forbidden to do so by the patrons in Saudi Arabia
and
Kuwait34. Thus, Pakistani Madrassas came under a vicious circle from which
there was
no way out.
In summary, the inability of the Pakistani government to meet the demand of
education
by young Muslim males; economic deterioration in Pakistan; the events in
Afghanistan;
open financial support for expanding religious education by Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait;
and U.S. interests in terms of using mujahidins for the fall of the Soviet Union;
played a
crucial role in bringing the Madrassa system in Pakistan to where it is now. As the
saying
goes, too many chefs can destroy the cake. The same thing happened to the
religious
education in Pakistan – there were too many players who were following their
own
recipes and not paying attention to the final product.

Madrasahs in Pakistan
Main article: Madrassas in Pakistan
.

There are more than 10,000 madrasahs currently (as of 1998?) operating in
Pakistan.[9] It is estimated that one to two million children are enrolled in
madrasahs.[10] Some media reports say that only 0.3 percent[citation needed] of
Pakistani school age children are enrolled in traditional madrasahs. This is
according to Pakistan's 1998 Population Census The World Bank Group. The
1998 Population Census found only 150,000 children.[citation needed] Orphans,
migrants, and part-time students may explain the discrepancy. Regardless,
percentage wise, the madrasah enrollment is relatively insignificant. There has
been considerable intellectual disagreement about the linkages of madrasahs to
conflict in Pakistan. A study conducted in 2005 by Saleem Ali for the United
States Institute of Peace attempts to clarify some of these concerns by providing
a detailed empirical comparison of rural and urban madrasahs (currently this
study is being updpated and expanded as a book (expected to be completed in
2007), though an earlier draft is available online [11]. The project also included a
web video on such schools titled Children of Faith.[12]

and quality and abandoning of the earthly science studies. The Madrassas in the
Arab
world also changed a little in terms of the orientation of the Islamic curriculum but
they
carried essentially the same system of education that was established in the
early
development of the Madrassa in Baghdad, and to this day accommodate the
teaching of
the secular subjects. This is especially true for Egypt where, under the Al-Azhar
Education system, the secular subjects compliment the Islamic education.

Structure of the System

Education is organized into five levels: primary (grades one through five); middle
(grades six through eight); high (grades nine and ten, culminating in
matriculation); intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to an F.A.
diploma in arts or F.S. science; and university programs leading to undergraduate
and advanced degrees. Preparatory classes (kachi, or nursery) were formally
incorporated into the system in 1988 with the Seventh Five-Year Plan.

Academic and technical education institutions are the responsibility of the federal
Ministry of Education, which coordinates instruction through the intermediate
level. Above that level, a designated university in each province is responsible for
coordination of instruction and examinations. In certain cases, a different ministry
may oversee specialized programs. Universities enjoy limited autonomy; their
finances are overseen by a University Grants Commission, as in Britain.

Teacher-training workshops are overseen by the respective provincial education

ministries in order to improve teaching skills. However, incentives are severely
lacking, and, perhaps because of the shortage of financial support to education,
few teachers participate. Rates of absenteeism among teachers are high in
general, inducing support for community-coordinated efforts promoted in the
Eighth Five-Year Plan (1993-98).

In 1991 there were 87,545 primary schools, 189,200 primary school teachers,
and 7,768,000 students enrolled at the primary level, with a student-to-teacher
ratio of forty-one to one. Just over one-third of all children of primary school age
were enrolled in a school in 1989. There were 11,978 secondary schools,
154,802 secondary school teachers, and 2,995,000 students enrolled at the
secondary level, with a student-to- teacher ratio of nineteen to one.

Primary school dropout rates remained fairly consistent in the 1970s and 1980s,
at just over 50 percent for boys and 60 percent for girls. The middle school
dropout rates for boys and girls rose from 22 percent in 1976 to about 33 percent
in 1983. However, a noticeable shift occurred in the beginning of the 1980s
regarding the postprimary dropout rate: whereas boys and girls had relatively
equal rates (14 percent) in 1975, by 1979-- just as Zia initiated his government's
Islamization program--the dropout rate for boys was 25 percent while for girls it
was only 16 percent. By 1993 this trend had dramatically reversed, and boys had
a dropout rate of only 7 percent compared with the girls' rate of 15 percent.

The Seventh Five-Year Plan envisioned that every child five years and above
would have access to either a primary school or a comparable, but less
comprehensive, mosque school. However, because of financial constraints, this
goal was not achieved.

In drafting the Eighth Five-Year Plan in 1992, the government therefore reiterated
the need to mobilize a large share of national resources to finance education. To
improve access to schools, especially at the primary level, the government
sought to decentralize and democratize the design and implemention of its
education strategy. To give parents a greater voice in running schools, it planned
to transfer control of primary and secondary schools to NGOs. The government
also intended to gradually make all high schools, colleges, and universities
autonomous, although no schedule was specified for achieving this ambitious
goal.

Reform Efforts

Three initiatives characterized reform efforts in education in the late 1980s and
early 1990s: privatization of schools that had been nationalized in the 1970s; a
return to English as the medium of instruction in the more elite of these privatized
schools, reversing the imposition of Urdu in the 1970s; and continuing emphasis
on Pakistan studies and Islamic studies in the curriculum.

Until the late 1970s, a disproportionate amount of educational spending went to

the middle and higher levels. Education in the colonial era had been geared to
staffing the civil service and producing an educated elite that shared the values
of and was loyal to the British. It was unabashedly elitist, and contemporary
education--reforms and commissions on reform notwithstanding--has retained
the same quality. This fact is evident in the glaring gap in educational attainment
between the country's public schools and the private schools, which were
nationalized in the late 1970s in a move intended to facilitate equal access.
Whereas students from lower-class backgrounds did gain increased access to
these private schools in the 1980s and 1990s, teachers and school principals
alike bemoaned the decline in the quality of education. Meanwhile, it appears
that a greater proportion of children of the elites are traveling abroad not only for
university education but also for their high school diplomas.

The extension of literacy to greater numbers of people has spurred the working
class to aspire to middle-class goals such as owning an automobile, taking
summer vacations, and providing a daughter with a once-inconceivable dowry at
the time of marriage. In the past, Pakistan was a country that the landlords
owned, the army ruled, and the bureaucrats governed, and it drew most of its
elite from these three groups. In the 1990s, however, the army and the civil
service were drawing a greater proportion of educated members from poor
backgrounds than ever before.

One of the education reforms of the 1980s was an increase in the number of
technical schools throughout the country. Those schools that were designated for
females included hostels nearby to provide secure housing for female students.
Increasing the number of technical schools was a response to the high rate of
underemployment that had been evident since the early 1970s. The Seventh
Five-Year Plan aimed to increase the share of students going to technical and
vocational institutions to over 33 percent by increasing the number of
polytechnics, commercial colleges, and vocational training centers. Although the
numbers of such institutions did increase, a compelling need to expand
vocational training further persisted in early 1994.
Pre-school

A child may begin his/her schooling at a pre-school at the age of 3. Over the last
few years, many new kindergarten (sometimes called montessori) schools have
sprung up in Pakistan.and many peple came

[edit] Primary Education

A Primary student in Pakistan in uniform

Formal education in Pakistan starts from around age 5. The first 5 years of
school are referred to as Primary. Thereafter, the next 3 are referred to as Middle
and the 2 after as Highschool.

[edit] Secondary Education

At the completion of Highschool or 10 years of schooling, students are required

to sit for board examinations referred to as Secondary School Certificate
examinations or matriculation examinations or more commonly as "Matric".
These are administered by area boards. Those that receive passing marks
(normally 33%) on this examination are awarded a Secondary School Certificate
or SSC. Students may then choose to undergo 2 years of additional schooling
(offered both a schools and some colleges) after which they sit for the Higher
Secondary School Certificate (HSSC), more commonly referred to as
'Intermediate' exams. There is a wide choice of subjects that students can
choose from during their 'intermediate' years many of which are technical
subjects. Students normally read about 5 subjects in a chosen stream such as
pre-medical, science, humanities, pre-engineering etc. and then sit for the Higher
Secondary School Certificate exam in those subjects which are also
administered by area boards. Those that receive passing marks (normally 33% of
all subjects cummulative) are awarded a Higher Secondary School Certificate or
HSSC.
[edit] Technical Education

Students can enter a plethora of technical institutes for technical certificates and
degrees. The entrance requirements for these courses varies greatly with some
such as carpentry requiring the applicant to be literate whereas others such as
B.Tech in automation requires HSSC.

[edit] Post-Secondary

Pakistani education system

Students can then proceed to a College or University for Bachelor of Arts (BA) or
Science (BSc) or Commerce/Business Administration (BCom/BBA) degree
courses. There are two types of Bachelor courses in Pakistan namely Pass or
Honours. Pass constitutes two years of study and students normally read three
optional subjects (such as Chemistry, Mathematics, Economics, Statistics) in
addition to almost equal number of compulsory subjects (such as English,
Pakistan Studies and Islamic Studies) whereas Honours are three or four years
and students normally specialize in a chosen field of study such as Biochemistry
(BSc Hons. Biochemistry). It is important to note that Pass Bachelors is now
slowly being phased out for Honours throughout the country. Students may also
after earning their HSSC may study for professional Bachelor degree courses
such as engineering (B Engg), medicine (MBBS), vetrinary medicine(DVM) law
(LLB), agriculture (B Agri), architecture (B Arch), nursing (B Nurs) etc. which are
of four or five years duration depending on the degree

Some Masters Degrees also consist of 1.5 years. Then there are PhD Education
as well in selected areas. One has to choose specific field and the suitable
university doing research work in that field. PhD in Pakistan consists of minimum
3-5 years.

Pakistani universities churn out almost 1.2 million skilled graduates annually. The
government has announced a $1 billion spending plan over the next decade to
build 6 state-of-the-art science and engineering universities. The scheme would
be overseen by the Higher Education Commission.
Private Institutions

The increasing prevalence of private schooling

Government schools in Pakistan having fallen short in the provision of quality

education, many parents have enrolled their children in private schools. Before
the 1990s, private schools were seen as a luxury only the rich could afford. From
the 1990s to the present, there has been a phenomenal rise in private education,
according to research by scholars at Harvard University, the World Bank, and
elsewhere. A Harvard/World Bank report states:

First, the extent of private schooling in Pakistan is striking. In 2000, 35

percent of children enrolled in school at the primary level were in private
schools, and this number falls by a third for middle and high schools to 25
percent. Private schooling in Pakistan at the primary level is large,
widespread and increasing over time. Second, Pakistan is the only low-
income country, to our knowledge, that has a high quality census of all
private schooling facilities in the country. These data allow us to
understand the structure of private schools throughout the country; the
large sample size permits useful comparisons even in regions where the
extent of private schooling is smaller. Using this census of private schools
in addition to representative household surveys from 1991 and 2001 and
data collected by the authors, we document several patterns about the
private schooling phenomenon in the country.

• The growth in private schooling is higher in rural compared to

urban areas and is high even among the poorest segments of the
population. What is equally remarkable is that these schools are
overwhelmingly for-profit enterprises —they have sprung up around
the country without much state regulation or subsidy.
• Private schools charge (very) low fees. A typical private school in a
rural village of Pakistan charges Rs.1000 ($18) per year, which
represents 4 percent of the GDP per capita for the country. In the
US, private schools (elementary and secondary) charged $3524 in
1991. At 14 percent of GDP per capita, the relative cost of private
schooling is almost 3.5 times as high in the US compared to
Pakistan.
• The key to charging low fees is keeping costs down. Since
teachers’ salaries constitute the bulk of educational budgets around
the world, lowering wages significantly reduces the overall cost of
providing education. Private schools employ young, single,
moderately educated and untrained local women. Since alternative
employment opportunities for these women are limited, they are
paid considerably lower wages than their male counterparts.
• These mechanisms define the possibility of private schools as well
as their limits. Where private schools arise, the use of locally
 educated women and the structure of the labor market allow them
to charge low fees. Where they exist, they are affordable. However,
private schools do not exist everywhere; in particular they are
constrained by the availability of teachers and potential demand
side considerations reflecting the size of the village. Private schools
are therefore not accessible to all. Since available teachers in rural
areas are typically (just) secondary-educated, privates schools are
also by necessity limited to the primary schooling market.

— From A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in

Pakistan, World Bank, November 2006.

Surveys from the late 1990s had found surprisingly high levels of private-school
enrollment in Pakistan's urban areas.One survey reported that 59 percent of
households earning less than Rs 3,500 had children who were enrolled in private
schools in the city of Lahore. Similarly, in the low-income and economically-
deprived Orangi district of Karachi, a surprising 60 percent of all enrolled children
went to private primary schools. The findings of this study are given added
support by a 1996 study conducted in the urban areas of five districts in the
province of Punjab. This study found that even among low-income households,
there was a private school enrolment rate of 50 percent.

More than 36,000 private institutions attend to the educational needs of 6.3
million children.

Cambridge-system schools

There is a parallel education system in place in some private schools, i.e. the 'O'
level and 'A' level system. The curricula are set by the University of Cambridge of
the UK. Students studying in this system do not follow the syllabi set by the
Pakistan government, but subjects such as Islamiyat and Pakistan studies are
still compulsory for most high school students. The Ministry of Education also
keeps an eye on what is being taught in these private schools. In recent years,
the number of students enrolled in these schools has increased considerably.
Many of these Cambridge-system schools charge high fees, catering to the
children of elite professionals and those who can afford them. However, during
recent years, the phenomenon of appearing for the Cambridge exams "privately"
has been rising. Students attend private tutoring sessions, register for the British
exams via the British Council, and do not attend any school to prepare for their
exams.

Madrassas

Ever since the start of the War on Terror, the attention of the world's media has
been focused on the madrassas operating in Pakistan which are mainly attended
by children living in rural areas. Popular worldwide beliefs are that a significant
number of students in Pakistan are a part of these religious schools. This myth
was debunked by a Harvard/World Bank study that examined statistical data to
more precisely determine madrassa enrollment in Pakistan. [7] [8] The findings
were that enrollment in Pakistani madrassas is relatively low, with less than 1
percent of all students enrolled in a school attending madrassas. [7] [8] There are
as much as 100 times as many children in public schools as there are in
madrassas and almost 40 times as many children in private schools as there are
in madrassas. [7] For the average Pakistani household, the choice of going to a
madrassa is simply not a statistically significant option. Even in areas which
surround Afghanistan, which are considered to be hotbeds of madrassa activity,
madrassa enrollment is actually less than 7.5 percent. [7]

Outside this region madrassa enrollment is thinly, but evenly, spread across the
rest of the country. There was no evidence of a dramatic increase in madrassa
enrollment in recent years. [7] [8] [9] Examining time trends it was found that
madrassa enrollment actually declined in Pakistan from its creation until the
1980s. [7] It increased somewhat during the religion-based resistance to the
invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets in 1979 and the subsequent rise of the
Taliban. However, in the last few years, the data does not suggest that there is
any dramatic increase in madrassa enrollment.

School Education
Primary and secondary education is provided by public and private schools as
well as by
Islamic madrasahs (see chapter 5 for more information about Islamic
madrasahs). School
education is organised in a 5+3+2+2 model: Primary stage (5 years); middle
stage (3 years);
lower secondary stage (2 years); and upper secondary stage (2 years).
Education starts at the age of five. Pre-school classes known as Katchi were
discontinued
during the 1980s. They were reintroduced with the National Education Policy
1998-2010.
According to information from the Ministry of Education, Pakistan has passed a
law on
compulsory education (eight years of schooling). Some provinces also have laws
regarding
this. Implementation of the law is dependent on support from all the provinces,
which has not
been secured so far.
Schools normally close for ten weeks from the beginning of June until mid/late
August.
Winter holidays usually run from mid-December to early January.
School education is organised by the Ministry of Education. The Curriculum Wing
within the
ministry formulates the national framework curriculum through a wide stakeholder
consultation. The present curriculum was revised and updated in the year 2000
and 2002 for
science subjects and social science subjects respectively. A new revision of the
national
curriculum for sciences and social science subjects/humanities at the primary,
secondary and
higher secondary education levels is planned for the years 2005/2006 in order to
make the
curriculum more responsive to modern needs and comparable with international
standards.
The Inter Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) controls the 26 boards of
intermediate and
secondary education. The boards, one federal and the remainder provincial,
affiliate schools,
implement, regulate and monitor schemes of studies and curricula, and hold
Secondary
School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC)
exams. Three
technical boards are responsible for vocational and technical education. A list of
the boards is
published by IBCC on their website at http://www.ibcc.edu.pk/default.asp.
Four textbook boards develop and print books for schools. Pakistan has
introduced textbook
deregulation for Classes 9-12 and is prepared to expand the initiative to the
primary sector to
allow for more efficient and competitive printing and publishing of textbooks.
The boards are autonomous institutions financed by fees from the affiliated
schools and from
students allowed for examination. Urdu is generally the medium of instruction
within the
education system.
Enrolment in school
Pakistan had a total of around 155,000 primary schools in 2003-04 with an
enrolment of
around 19.8 million pupils and 432,000 teachers. Boys' schools comprise around
74,000
institutions, while girls' schools and mixed schools make up the remaining 81,000
institutions.
In government schools in urban areas 51% of the pupils are boys, while the rate
in private
schools is about 60% and 69% in rural areas.
8
Although the general enrolment of girls in education is progressing, nevertheless
the ratio of
girls to boys still favours boys, with 72% in primary education and 64% in
secondary
education. The current policy encourages the enrolment of girls by supplying
them with
scholarships and free textbooks.
Private education
Before 1972, private educational institutions constituted a substantial proportion
of the total
educational system of schools and colleges. In 1972 the Pakistan government
nationalised all
private educational institutions.
Because of a lack of funding for public education, private educational institutions
were again
permitted to operate from 1979. The government even encouraged private
enterprises to open
educational institutions in rural areas. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO)
could
contractually take over government schools for a prescribed time-period.
Enrolment in private schools is now in the order of 42% of total enrolment and
37% at the
middle school level. At the secondary and higher secondary level, the enrolment
in private
education is 30% and 64% respectively.
Permission to set up educational institutions is granted either by the Ministry of
Education or
the respective Provincial Education Department. Registered private schools have
to follow a
government-prescribed curriculum.
Enrolment in private schools is predominant among urban middle and upper
income families.
Private schools are considered in general to exhibit better performances than
government and
state schools, but the quality of education varies.
In some areas government schools are non-functioning or nonexistent and
parents send their
children to low-cost private schools with basic facilities or to local maktabs or
madaris
(religious schools).
Sources:
- Education Sector Reforms: Action Plan (2001/2- 2005/6), Ministry of Education,
Pakistan
- Inter Board Committee of Chairmen http://www.ibcc.edu.pk/default.as
- Ministry of Education. Advertisement (new curriculum)
http://www.moe.gov.pk/Advertisement.doc.
- Pakistan, World data on education. UNESCO
- Pakistan. International comparisons. UK NARIC
- Pakistan, education: Report of the EC Rapid Reaction Mechanism Assessment
Mission, 2002
- The State of Education in Pakistan 2003-4. Ministry of Education, Pakistan
9
National Curricula
Primary education
Primary education comprises Grades I-V. The language of instruction is either
Urdu or the
regional language. The curriculum includes reading, writing, arithmetic, general
science,
social studies, Islamic education, and physical education.
Middle level education
Middle level education lasts from Grades VI-VIII. The curriculum includes the
compulsory
subjects of Urdu, English, mathematics, sciences, social studies, and Islamic
studies. Non-
Muslims are exempt from Islamiyat-Islamic Studies. Instead they are taught
Moral Education.
Secondary Education
Secondary Education lasts from Grades IX through X. Students can specialise in
science,
humanities, or technical streams. Compulsory subjects for all are English, Urdu,
Islamiyat,
Pakistan studies and mathematics. In addition, students study the following
subjects within
the different streams:
Science stream: Physics, chemistry and biology/computer
science/technical subject
Humanities stream: General science and two elective subjects/one
elective subject and one technical subject
Technical stream: General science and two technical subjects.
However, rural areas often offer a limited choice of subjects due to lack of staff
and facilities,
such as science labs in science streams. Only 35% out of 9,200 secondary and
higher
secondary schools in Pakistan meet the minimum requirements of an equipped
laboratory
according to official statistics published in the Education Sector Reforms: Action
Plan for
2001/2002 to 2005/2006. The government plans to construct new science labs in
about 3,000
schools during 2001-2011.
The technical education stream was introduced at the beginning of this century.
The aim is for
the technical stream to be available in 1,200 secondary schools, 10 in each
district, preferably
five male and five female schools. The technical education stream addresses
itself to those
pupils who enter the labour market after Grade X. 34 emerging technology
streams are
planned for introduction along with appropriate teaching materials.
Students passing the examination at the end of Grade X are awarded the
Secondary School
Certificate.
Higher secondary education
Higher secondary education, sometimes referred to as the "intermediate stage",
lasts from
Grades XI to XII. It often takes place at university colleges or similar. According to
the UK
NARIC, army public schools, divisional public schools, autonomous colleges and
some
private sector institutions are commonly recognised as being more prestigious
than
government schools. The earlier term faculty of arts/sciences for higher
secondary education
is still often used, e.g. in admission materials from higher education institutions.
Regional Boards are granted some autonomy on the subjects and combinations
they may
offer.
10
The students are offered the following subjects and streams by, for example, the
Federal
Board of Secondary and Intermediate Education (FBISE):
Compulsory subjects for all groups: English, Urdu, Islamic
education and Pakistan studies
Pre-engineering group: Mathematics, physics and chemistry
Pre-medical group: Biology, physics and chemistry
Science general group:
o Mathematics, physics and statistics
o Mathematics, economics and statistics
o Mathematics, computer studies and physics
o Mathematics, computer studies and statistics
o Mathematics, computer studies and economics
Humanities group: Three subjects out of 23 elective subjects
Commerce group:
o Part one: Principles of accounting, principles of economics,
principles of commerce, business mathematics
o Part two: Principles of accounting, commercial geography,
statistics, computer studies/banking/typing
Medical technology group
o Part one: Elementary chemistry and chemical pathology,
elementary anatomy and micro-techniques, micro-biology I
o Part two: Haematology and blood banking, clinical pathology
and serology, micro-biology II.
Girls are also offered the possibility of home-economics. Dars-i-Nizami Group
(Koran
reading) is introduced at secondary and higher secondary levels to bridge the
gap between
Madrasah education and the formal education system in Pakistan.
Central Boards of Madrasahs in Pakistan
Name Sub-sect Place Established
Wafq-ul-Madaris-al-
Salafia
Ahl-i-Hadith Faislabad 1955
Wafaq ul Madaris Deobandi Multan 1959
Wafaq ul Madaris
(Shia) Pakistan
Shia Lahore 1959
Tanzim ul Madaris Barelvi Lahore 1960
Rabta-tul-Madaris-al-
Islamia
Jamat-i-Islami Lahore 1983
Sources:
- Le Monde Diplomatique, March, 2006
- Pakistan, education: Report of the EC Rapid Reaction Mechanism Assessment
Mission, 2002
- Rahman, Tariq: The Madrassa and the State of Pakistan Religion, poverty and
the
potential for violence in Pakistan. Islamabad Policy Research Institute, 2004
School Education
27
Madrasah primary schools, called maktabs, are usually attached to mosques and
provide basic
Islamic education, e.g. reading and memorisation of the Koran. Secondary
school madrasahs
provide advanced instruction in Islamic education.
As for teaching modern subjects, the Ahl-i-Hadith madrasahs have been teaching
Pakistan
studies, English, mathematics and general science for a long time, according to
Tariq Raman,
2004. The Jamat-i-Islami as well as the larger Deobandi, Barelvi and Shia
madrasahs also
teach secular subjects. Urdu and Arabic are the languages of instruction in the
madrasahs.
Madrasahs have their own examination system and award certificates called
sanads
corresponding to the formal system:
Hifz/Tajweed-wa-Quiraat/Ibtedayia = Primary School
Mutawassita = Middle School
Sanviya Aama = Secondary School Certificate
  anaviya Khassa and above = Higher Secondary School Certificate
S
Holders of the Sanaviya Khassa can either continue to higher education within
the madrasah
system or in the formal sector.
Madrasahs are mostly run on a charitable basis, the fees charged being small or
non-existent.
Some madrasahs provide free room and board as well. The Pakistan
government gives
financial assistance to madrasahs in order to modernise textbooks, including
secular subjects
in the curriculum such as English, mathematics and introducing computers.
In order to bring the madrasah schools into the mainstream, in 2002 General
Pervez
Musharraf's military government tried to impose reform on the schools in the form
of
prescription of foreign students, introduction of modern subjects and the creation
of model
madaris. Only about 4,350 schools (about one tenth) agreed to register.
The Pakistan government however continues the reform of the madaris and the
introduction of
formal education that started with the National Education Policy 1998-2010
At the end of 2005, the Pakistan government made it mandatory for madrasahs
to be
registered, and they have declared that all unregistered madrasahs will be
closed, beginning in
December 2005.
Sources:
- Education Sector Reforms: Action Plan (2001/2- 2005/6), Ministry of Education,
Pakistan
- Rahman, Tariq: The Madrassa and the State of Pakistan Religion, poverty and
the
potential for violence in Pakistan. Islamabad Policy Research Institute, 2004