ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE: A JIHAD FOR
MUSLIM INTELLECTUALS
BY
DR. RAFIU IBRAHIM ADEBAYO
E-mail address: [email protected]
Phone number: 0703 546 7292, 0805 978 3314
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIONS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN,
P.M.B. 1515, ILORIN,NIGERIA.
ABSTRACT
The current trend in Islamic thought - Islamization of
knowledge, is becoming a global issue in the Muslim world.
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Scholars in various disciplines have been striving tirelessly to
recast knowledge in its entirety, from the Islamic perspective.
The proliferation of Muslim schools in Nigeria is an indication
of the Muslims’ awareness of the programme. However, most
of these Muslim schools are yet to grasp the major intent of
the programme as they regard mere inclusion of Islamic
Studies and Arabic in the school curricula as Islamization of
knowledge. This paper exposes the expected Islamization
agenda of Muslim schools with particular reference to private
Islamic nursery schools. In this wise, the programmes of
studies, activities and guidance in the school set-up are given
Islamic touch.
INTRODUCTION
Pre-primary education according to the National Policy on
Education is “the education given in an educational institution to children
aged three to five plus prior their entering the primary school.”1 The first
five years of a child are very crucial and important in his life as whatever
he is exposed to during the period has a serious and lasting effect on him
in future. No serious government takes the education of her citizens at
that stage with levity. In France, the central government shares the
largest responsibility of the total cost of educating the children while the
local authority provides the remainder. In England and Wales, it is the
local authorities that control and administer the pre-school education
through nationally prepared guidelines. In West Germany, the pre-
primary institutions are privately owned.2 This is equally the case in
Nigeria.
As precious as the pre-primary education is, it is sad to note that it
received an unappreciable attention by the Nigeria government and
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citizens for a long time. The National Curriculum Conference held in
Lagos in September 1969 as historic as it was, failed to address any issue
related to pre-primary education. Rather, it focused much on primary,
secondary, tertiary education, teacher education, science and technical
education as well as women education.3 The 6-3-3-4 system of education
is silent about pre-primary education as well. It was not until recently that
the Federal Government of Nigeria broke its silence on it and realized the
need to have a say in the conduct of nursery education and thus clearly
stated the purpose and direction of pre-primary education in Nigeria in
the National Policy on Education (NPE) published in 1977 and revised in
1981and 1998. This policy stipulates that the first ladder of education
would be handled and manned by private individuals but monitored by
the government.4 Consequently, the Nigerian Educational Research
Council (N.E.R.C) started to organize series of seminars, workshops and
lectures to educate proprietors of nursery schools on how the goals of
nursery education could be achieved.
The indelibility of the knowledge acquired by young and innocent
children suggests the paramount importance of early childhood
education. Knowledge in childhood is likened to an engraved mark on a
rock, which is difficult to rub off. As it is better to train boys than to mend
men, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (P.B.O.H.) emphatically mentioned it
that children must be religiously educated in their early stages. He asked
parents to command their children to be observing salat when they are
seven years of age. In another instance, he observed that the moment a
child is able to distinguish between the left and the right hands, he
should be commanded to pray. They should have been given elementary
knowledge of Islam before this time. This is because a child could only
be asked to pray after he had been taught what to say while praying,
how to pray, whom to pray to and other pre-requisites of prayer. Sowing
the seed of Iman and Islam in the heart of children was not taken lightly
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by the companions of the prophet. Once a man was arrested by the
police for drinking in Ramadan and when the case was brought before
‘Umar, he remarked: “Woe to you! Even our children are keeping fast in
this month”5
Pre-primary education is not a new development among Muslims in
Nigeria. The first stage of Qur’anic education started as early as the third
year of life. Before the advent of Western education in the country, early
Islamic and Qur’anic education was given prominence among the
Muslims. Classes were held at the Mallams’ houses under the shade of
trees and in the mosque premises. Major Denham and Captain
Clapperton observed that such schools were scattered all over Nigeria as
they saw them in places like Kuka, Katsina and Sokoto between 1821 and
1830. In 1961 there were about 27,600 Quranic schools with a total of
about 423,000 pupils in northern Nigeria.6 In this level of education,
emphasis was laid on learning shorter chapters of the Qur’an through
repetition and by rote, alphabets of the Arabic language as well as
acquisition of some writing skills.
In the Nigeria situation, the reasons for establishing contemporary
nursery institutions are summed up in the words of Orebanjo who says:
The increasing awareness in education resulting from the UPE
(Universal Primary Education) scheme, the need for working
mothers to leave their children in safe hands, the dwindling number
of domestic hands, nannies and grandmothers and others factors
led to the establishment of these Institutions in urban and rural
areas.7
It is an undeniable fact that nursery schools are established to
create an atmosphere conducive for the children to use language for
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comparing, describing, analyzing and explaining. The language is no
other than English. The mother tongue is thus relegated to the lowest
ebb. Under the pretext of providing the above opportunities for children,
the Christians started establishing nursery institutions as a means of
transforming and preserving their religious culture and tenets. The
failure of the Muslims to realize that education is a product of a particular
worldview and is tailored towards some particular socio-historical and
civilizational contexts, made them register their children and wards into
these Christian oriented schools. Before they realized it, their children
had started praying in Jesus name, closing their eyes while praying and
shouting Halleluyah. The little Islamic culture imbibed from home was
technically knocked out of their hearts and instead of developing interest
in their religion, they are taught to hate it unconsciously.
The reaction of some conscious Muslim organizations and
individuals to the evangelization plot of the Christians via nursery
education culminated in the establishment of Muslim nursery schools
where Muslim working parents could leave their children to be exposed to
western education without losing their religious identity. The dwindling
patronage of Qur’anic schools by Muslims equally calls for the
establishment of Islamically oriented nursery schools. Except in rear
cases, most Qur’anic schools operate only in the afternoon for children to
attend after their normal western school hours.8 The financial constraints
facing most of the Quranic schools as a result of running ‘free education’
by them forced many of these schools to metamorphosise into Islamic
nursery primary schools where fees are charged and parents are ready to
pay.
The involvement of Muslims in the contemporary nursery education
business is a new development in Nigeria. Schools of such are expected
to carry out dual roles of meeting the challenges of western education as
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well as creating an environment conducive for learning Islamic oriented
disciplines. In the bid to combine these two responsibilities, many of
these schools have fallen into either of the two extremes of introducing
too much Arabic subjects to their curriculum or rather giving too much
western subjects priority that Islamic ones are gradually elbowed out.
Thus, the need to propound an agenda towards Islamizing the curriculum
of Islamic nursery schools to enable them function effectively in the two
realms of western and Islamic contexts.
A CRITIQUE OF THE DOMINANT NURSERY SCHOOL CURRICULUM.
Various attempts to define, classify, analyze and conceptualize the
word ‘curriculum’ have resulted into loss of some of its essential realities.
While some take it to mean what teachers teach and what learners learn,
it is a synonym of syllabus, course of study, scheme of work, lesson note
or lesson plan to some. However, such mean and shallow definitions
have been rectified by Wilkins who sees curriculum as ‘the overall
learning programme in a school which covers time-tabled lessons, sports,
social activities and all other facilities through which the school aids the
development of its pupils.’9 In other words, curriculum consists of the
programme of studies, programme of activities and programmes of
guidance. The programme of studies refers to all academic subjects
offered in schools, while the programme of activities includes inter-
scholastic and inter-moral activities like athletics, school publications,
music programmes, clubs and societies, all which vitalize the curriculum.
The programme of guidance involves guidance services rendered in the
school. Concisely, curriculum is the totality of all the experiences,
planned or unplanned, which the child is exposed to in the four walls of
the school.
The profanity of the aims and objectives of the dominant nursery
school curriculum is one of the serious setbacks of the curriculum. The
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secularist modernist worldview as well as the dismissal of God as a major
characteristic of western education generally raises its ugly head in the
nursery curriculum. According to the Nigerian Educational Research
Council, the general goals of nursery education in Nigeria are:
(i.) To effect a smooth transition from home to school and to provide
adequate care and supervision for the children while their parents
are at work;
(ii.) To help the child to adjust to social norms;
(iii.) To inculcate in the child a spirit of enquiry and creativity through the
exploration of nature and the local environment, playing with toys,
and artistic and musical activities, etc;
(iv.) To teach good habits especially good health; and
(v.) To teach the child the basic academic skills.10
One important manifestation of the goals is that they are tailored
towards producing godless children who right from the onset of their
lives are devoid of seeking knowledge of their creator. It thus
produces a materialistic personality in the individual who looks at
religion and spiritual needs as private and not basic to human life on
this earth.11
In realisation of the above objectives, subjects like Creative Art,
Social Norms, Physical and Health Education, Language and
Communication Skills, Mathematical Skills as well as Scientific and
Reflective Thinking are prescribed by the Nigerian Educational Research
Council for nursery schools. Guidelines on these subjects are made
available for effective teaching and learning.12 This further reveals the
secularist tendency of nursery education curriculum. In this curriculum
guideline, religious education is conspicuously not included. Education
without religion is like tea without sugar, a zombie or rather, a body
without soul, and the absence of soul in the body makes it hopeless,
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useless and valueless. Mutahheri aptly observes the result of such kind
of education when he says:
Knowledge without faith is a sharp sword in the hand of a
drunken brute. It is a lamp in the hand of a thief to help him
pick up the best articles at midnight. That is why there is not
the least difference in the nature and conduct of the faithless
man of today who has knowledge and the faithless man of
yesterday who had no knowledge. After all what is the
difference between the Churchills, Johnsons, Nixons and
Stalins of today and the Pharaohs, Genglis Khans and Attilas
of yore?13
Apart from the above, any education aiming at effecting a smooth
transition from home to school but which lacks religious education at that
crucial level of education may be contrary to the cultural state of the
environment which education must portray. It thus becomes irrelevant to
Nigerians majority of who profess one religion or the other; hence the
first goal of nursery education is rendered unachievable. Realizing this
shortcoming in the nursery curriculum, some schools introduced
Religious Education into their curriculum. A sort of window dressing
Islamic Studies is introduced into some so-called Islamic nursery schools
curriculum as a subject thereby giving the false impression that pure
Islamic tenets are imparted to the young ones. Or what can we say of
some Christian proprietors who include Islamic Studies as a subject into
their schools’ curriculum to lure unconscious Muslim parents to bring
their children to their schools? This attitude is confirmed by Salaudeen
when he writes:
The inclusion of Islamic Studies in most of the nursery
schools is simply to make them attractive to Muslim parents
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who will assume that the aspect of Islamic education is being
taken care of. In fact, it is merely window- dressing14
The force of homogenization, hegemonization and Europeanization
in the name of globalization has eroded not only the Islamic culture from
the innocent minds of the young pupils, but also their natural language.
The medium of instruction in the conventional nursery schools is English.
The standard of nursery schools is measured by the level of their
students’ mastery of the language. Without any scintilla of doubt,
English is the lingua franca in every nursery school in Nigeria. This
however is, at the expense of the mother tongue, which according to the
National Policy on Education should be the prescribed language of
instruction at that level of education.15 This creates a gap between the
theory and practice of education in the country. According to Fafunwa,
instruction through the mother tongue at the early stage of education
helps to develop curiosity, manipulative ability, manual dexterity,
mechanical comprehension and co-ordination of the hand and eye.16 One
evil effect of emphasizing foreign language over mother tongues is that it
isolates children from their culture and from their nature. They thus
become specialists in foreign language, unable to use their own mother
tongue and unable to function well in their own world. Thus, education at
this stage fails to play the role of cultural transformation and
preservation, whereas according to Al-Attas “education preserves the
basic structure of society by conserving all that is worthwhile in basic
values and institutions by transmitting them to the next generation and
by renewing culture afresh whenever degeneration, stagnation or loss of
values occurs.”17
Another significant problem with nursery education in Nigeria is the
siting of the nursery schools. There is nothing to write home about in the
location of some of these schools. The use of residential houses and
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face-to-face type of rooms as classrooms is one of the common
characteristics of nursery schools in the country. Some are even located
very near market squares directly to the main road, while large halls,
verandas, garages and sheds with varying degrees of ventilation,
sanitation, illumination, equipment and infrastructure are the physical
features of many of these schools. As a result of non-availability of space
in some of these schools, the provision for outdoor activities is grossly
inadequate while the manner of overcrowding of pupils in the classrooms
is quite outrageous. The case is not different even in public primary
schools. Lamenting on the pathetic status of public primary schools, the
ex-minister of Education, Iyorchia Ayu noted, “not many schools could
boast of desks, dusters, chalk and staff quarters. Overcrowded
classrooms and dilapidated structures remained the typical feature of
primary school system.”18
Another glaring shortcoming of the government policy on nursery
education is that it makes no provision for the government’s pre-primary
schools, which can serve as model for the ones established by private
individuals and voluntary organizations. Coupled with this is the
influence of materialism on the government itself. At different levels,
government charges exorbitant amount of money as registration and
annual renewal fees. This step reduces nursery education to middle
cadre of the society who can afford the high fees charged by these
schools in order for them to meet the financial demand of the
government. Thus, government regulations guiding the establishment of
private nursery schools connotes that the proprietors must not
necessarily need to be qualified professionally, nor committed to the
needs of children, but must be rich enough to pay the exorbitant amount
as registration and renewal fees to the government purse. The throat-
cutting school fees consequent upon the government charges no doubt
adds to the burden of the Muslims community as many could not afford
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to pay due to the size of the family in addition to other factors such as
indolence, laziness, insensitivity on their part as noticed by Shehu.19 Thus
the backwardness of the Muslims in the acquisition of nursery education
is imminent.
With the little critical appraisal of the contemporary nursery
education system, we contend that there is the need for the Muslims to
design and formulate their own nursery education agenda by Islamizing
the curriculum of the Muslim schools or else they found their schools as
centres of promoting anti-Islamic education, centres of Islamic
marginalisation and centres of breeding Muslim children against the
worldview and culture of their religion.
AN AGENDA FOR ISLAMIC NURSERY SCHOOLS.
The only available agenda for all Islamic nursery schools is no other
than Islamizing their curriculum. This agenda becomes incontestable in
view of the dual roles expected of any Islamic school namely functioning
effectively as a centre of Islamic culture propagation and production of
candidates who will be effectively functional in the contemporary Nigeria
situation in terms of western education. Failure to Islamize the
curriculum, an Islamic school will incredulously be undoing its worldview
and will be producing unIslamic Muslims. This is equally the view of Qutb
who succinctly put forward two suggestions on how to avoid such a
pathetic situation, saying:
If we are serious about giving religion its true place in
educational curricula, we have to do two things almost
simultaneously. Fist, we must not restrict religious guidance
to the formal traditional lesson. Second, we must reconsider
the syllabuses devised for this particular lesson and re-
evaluate them in most parts of the Muslim world. The
objective of religious education is to produce a Muslim man
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or woman. This end cannot be achieved through a few
disintegrated pieces of religious information to be learnt by
heart and tested at the end of the school year, especially if
one’s concepts, attitudes, morals and modes of behaviour are
all non- or anti- Islamic.20
A curriculum becomes Islamized when its programmes of studies,
activities and guidance in a school are enriched and vitalised with Islamic
teachings and principles. So, by Islamization of curriculum, we mean the
practice of intellectual activity and other planned and unplanned
activities in the school based on the Islamic concept of the universe, life
and man, which a child is exposed to under the control of the school. In
this regard, the agenda of Islamizing the curriculum involves the
following:
(a) Reformulation of aims and objectives of Nursery Education:
The secular nature of western education has been a major
concern for the Muslim intellectuals. The mundane and profane
nature of western education takes care of the terrestrial world with
no consideration at all for the celestial world. Thus a
comprehensive Islamic philosophy of education was defined in the
First World Conference on Muslim Education in 1977 that:
Education should aim at the balanced growth of the
total personality of Man through the training of Man’s
spirit, intellect, rational self, feelings and bodily senses.
Education should cater therefore for the growth of Man
in all its aspects: spiritual, intellectual, imaginative,
physical, scientific, linguistic, both individually and
collectively and motivate all aspects towards goodness
and the attainment of perfection. The ultimate aim of
Muslim education lies in the realisation of complete
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submission to Allah on the level of the individual, the
community and humanity at large.21
The above aim of education shows a balanced interaction
between the belief system, the knowledge system and the value
system, which does not exist in the western education system. As
such, we want to uphold the aims and objectives for setting up an
Islamic nursery school as itemized by a scholar thus:
(i) To prepare and train the future generation to work as agents of
Allah on earth.
(ii) To inculcate in the child the sense of love, care, affection; humility,
equity, honesty, integrity, justice and other values based on Islamic
ethics.
(iii) To develop in the child a spirit of enquiry and creativity through the
exploration of nature and local environment so that he becomes
conscious of his responsibility to develop himself and his
environment for the benefit of human race and his consequent
accountability in the next world.
(iv) To teach the child the basic academic skills based on Islamic
epistemology.
(v) To produce a conducive Islamic environment for the proper
upbringing of the child and the development of his faculties to
realise the full potential of people.
(vi) To put in place amenities both human and material for all round
development of the child, spiritually, morally, mentally, culturally
and materially in preparation for the adult life.22
(b) Reconstruction of Programmes of Studies:
For any Islamic nursery school to function effectively in
contemporary modern life and for its products to interact
meaningfully with their immediate environment, adoption of the
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western curriculum is very essential. However such curriculum
needs to be adapted to suit Islamic taste. In other words, it needs
to be enriched with Islamic ethics and values in such a way that the
aims and objectives of Islamic education will be realised in the
realm of western curriculum. Through this its profane and secular
nature will be substituted with divine and spiritual values. It is our
considered opinion that the following subjects are expected to be
taught from Islamic perspective in Islamic nursery schools:
(i) Mathematical Skills:
The knowledge of mathematics becomes imperative in any
Islamic school curriculum considering its indispensability in
religious rituals and practices like salat, zakat, hajj and other
religious ceremonies that require scientific understanding of the
lunar calendar. The laws of inheritance as well as waqf requires
proper knowledge of mathematics too.
Counting and recognizing number symbols as well as shapes
and colours will be of immense assistance for nursery school
children to identify objects, colours of vehicles, car numbers and
home addresses. Proper handling of the subject by competent
teachers will assist the pupils to recognise the mighty power of
Allah in creating natural objects in various sizes and colours. As
the Qur’an encourages finding solutions to problems, pupils are
also exposed to solving mathematical problems using counting
sticks, bottle top, stones, seeds matchsticks and some other
materials. With this they are able to count and make simple
calculations with numbers. Though the mathematics curriculum of
the western education system seems neutral, we feel it can be
coloured ‘Islamic’ by infusing Islamic values, concepts and beliefs
and by using Islamic terminology wherever appropriate.
(ii) English Language:
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English is a medium of instruction in Nigeria through which
effective instruction with others outside the child’s environment
could take place. Any attempt to downgrade the teaching of
English in any Islamic school is like an attempt to create a wide gap
between the Muslims and the English speaking people in the fields
of science, economics, military and cultural achievements.
It was the concession of the Muslim scholars that attended
the Sixth International Islamic Education Conference held in the
Republic of South Africa that the goals of teaching English language
in Islamic schools are ‘to enable learners to develop to the full their
potential, to understand and use the language so that they may
become better practicing Muslims who will enjoin that which is right
and eschew evil. The spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional and
cultural development of the learner will also be targeted via the
teaching and learning of the language.’23 The rationale behind
teaching the language in Islamic schools is summed up in the
following statement as contained in the report:
The mastery of the spoken and written form of English will
equip the present and future generations not only to
withstand the universal barrage of propaganda and
misinformation about Islam, but also to use the language for
the purpose of Da‘wah as well as for the upliftment (sic) of
the Ummah.24
In Islamic schools, the teachers teaching English as a school
subject must be well equipped with Islamic knowledge so that they
will be able to correct some mistakes about their religion as
contained in some English texts. Such spelling mistakes as
Moslem, instead of Muslim, Mecca instead of Makkah, Mohammed
instead of Muhammad are to be corrected by them following the
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common transliteration style used by the Library of Congress. It is
equally asserted by Al-Faruqi that attempts by some scholars to
translate untranslatable Arabic words into English had resorted to
distortion of the original meanings of such words. In this wise, the
actual words must be applied while their meanings are explained.25
Closely related to this is that some dictionary meanings of Islamic
terminologies have been distorted or wrongly interpreted.
‘Mohammed’, for instance, is interpreted as “the prophet who
formed the Muslim religion”, while “Muslim” is defined as “a person
of the religion started by Mohammed.” Gwong-Wad has rightly
observed that the opportunity of the flexibility and richness of the
English language coupled with the receptive nature of its nouns to
the new entries of lexical terms, has been used as a weapon in the
hands of non-Muslim users to discredit and disrepute Islam.26 To
drive home his point, he cited the Longman Dictionary of
Contemporary English which makes the entry of “Mecca” in small
letter “m”, violating the language rule of proper nouns. It thus
becomes the responsibility of an English teacher to be conscious of
these and avoid teaching his pupils such wrong concepts, while he
gives an approved Islamic concepts in their proper forms.
It has to be noted that some steps have been taken to
discourage the learning of English alphabets based on the
conventional secular “A for Apple, B for Ball” method; and this has
been substituted for learning Allah’s attributes through an English
alphabetical rhyme. A professor has put forward the following:
A is for ALLAH, Yes ALLAH is our only True God
B is for ALLAH, The Beneficent (Ar-Rahman)
C is for ALLAH, The Compassionate (Ar-Rahim)
D is for ALLAH, The Dominant (Al-Qahhar)
E is for ALLAH, The Everlasting (Al-Baqqi)
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F is for ALLAH, The Forgiver (Al-Gafur)
G is for ALLAH, The Guide (Al-Hadi)
H is for ALLAH, The Holy (Al-Quddus)
I is for ALLAH, The Inheritor (Al-Warith)
J is for ALLAH, The Judge (Al-Hakam)
K is for ALLAH, The King (Al-Malik)
L is for ALLAH, The Light of Heavens and Earth (An-
Nur)
M is for ALLAH, The Mighty (Al-Aziz)
N is for ALLAH, The Noble (Al-Majid)
O is for ALLAH, The Opener (Al-Fattah)
P is for ALLAH, The Patron (Al-Waliyy)
Q is for ALLAH, The Quickner (Al-Muhyi)
R is for ALLAH, The Reproducer (Al-Muid)
S is for ALLAH, The Sustainer (Ar-Razzaq)
T is for ALLAH, The True and The Truth (Al-Haqq)
U is for ALLAH, The Ultimate (Al-Akhir)
V is for ALLAH, The Vast (Al-Wasic)
W is for ALLAH, TheWise (Al-Hakim)
X is for ALLAH, The Xylographer (Al-Muqit)
Y is for ALLAH, The Yield (An-Nafic)
Z is for ALLAH, The Zenith (Al-cAliyy)27
Although the rhyme above can hardly be taught with relevant
instructional materials to facilitate effective teaching and learning,
learning it by rote will sharpen the brain of the pupils and it will equally
avail them the opportunity of memorizing the attributes of Allah without
much tears.
(iii) Social Norms:
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Under this subject, pupils are exposed to learning social habits like
correct greetings, respect for others, obeying simple instructions, toilet
habits, proper dressing habits, knowing self and one’s family, learning to
use socially accepted expressions for requests and appreciation and
knowing about the neighbourhood. Through the study of man and his
environment in general, pupils’ hearts are opened to the fear and love of
Allah, their Creator.
Pupils must also be exposed to correct Islamic greetings and
responses. They must be taught to say ‘al-hamdu lillah (praise be to
Allah) whenever they sneeze instead of “Excuse me”. The expression
yar-hamka Allah (May Allah’s Blessings be upon you) must be said by a
second person instead of ‘sorry’ by him while the corresponding reply
‘Yahdikumu Ilah’ (May Allah guide you) be said by the person who
sneezed to the second person.
(iv) Scientific and Reflective Thinking:
The objective of teaching science in any Islamic nursery school is
for the child to observe nature and to reflect on the beauty and wonder
of nature and be aware of Allah as the Provider of everything.
For proper integration of scientific and Reflective Thinking into the
Islamic school curriculum, we strongly suggest a practical approach
whereby pupils, for instance, are practically involved in planting of seeds,
watching and observing their growth. Pupils must be taken to flower
gardens, river; poultry and animal farms for them to see the wonders of
Allah. They should be shown such natural endowments as sky, sun, rain,
stars and many others while relevant examples must be drawn from
them as well. This, to a large extent, will assist them to ponder and
realise the oneness of Allah, their Creator.
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(v) Islamic Studies:
In order to foster the spiritual, emotional and intellectual
consciousness of Islam among the pupils and to inculcate and develop
Iman, taqwa , love for Islam, Islamic identity and noble characters in the
pupils, Islamic Studies is paramount among the subjects to be taught in
any viable Islamic nursery school. To start with, a conducive Islamic
atmosphere needs to be ensured. Simple Islamic etiquettes, and such
topics as the pillars of Islam, Iman and its attributes, the primary sources
of Islamic Law, names of some prophets, the Attributes of Allah and other
rudiments of Islamic Studies are expected to be taught.
Morality is another aspect of Islamic education a child should be
exposed to. It is generally admitted that religious education has a crucial
role to play in any effective moral education programme. While
discussing this particular issue, Orebanjo concludes:
To think of introducing moral education into schools without
any connection with religion is to ask all schools to wait for a
couple of years before the new breed of teacher is ready.28
The above claim buttresses the stand of Islam on inseparability of
religion and morality from Quranic perspective. In short, such virtues as
goodness to parents, obedience to authority, friendliness, honesty,
kindness are expected to be inculcated in the pupils in Islamic schools.
Morality can be injected into the pupils through telling stories of different
personalities in Islam as well as living by practical examples of the
teachers.
(vi) Quranic Arabic:-
Arabic is the universal language of Islam. It is the language of the
Qur’an and the language of the formal worship in Islam. As no one can
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study Islam effectively without having the knowledge of Arabic, it
becomes incumbent upon any Islamic nursery school to introduce Arabic
and Qur’an into its curriculum. Through this, the pre-primary Islamic
school is able to function properly as an Islamic nursery school with
provision of a solid foundation in Islamic education including the ability to
read the Qur’an in Arabic. It is when this is achieved that the problems of
producing half-baked Islamists and graduates in Islamic Studies who
could not read the Qur’an in its original language will be checked right
from the grassroot.
A child of nursery age must be able to recognise and identify letters
of the Arabic alphabets and vowels. He should be able to recite some
Arabic rhymes and poems and mention some objects in Arabic.
Memorization of short chapters of the Qur’an should also be introduced to
train the child’s memory. The use of audio-visual aids could be of
immense importance for the teachers to arouse the interest of the pupils
in the memorization exercise.
(c) Reshaping the Programme of Activities
As a matter of fact, all academic programmes in any Islamic
nursery school must be accompanied by programmes of activities, which
promote incidental learning through play. Play is as important to children
as food. It is the major pre-occupation of every child before he is old
enough to go to school. Through play, he learns how to handle the
objects around him, develops physically and socially, and through his
interactions with others, he develops morally. As such, play should be
constructively monitored for learning to take place informally. Enough
play materials and educative toys must be made available for the pupils
to boost their learning. Since a corrupt environment can corrupt the best
of natures, while a good environment can encourage and sustain the best
that is within the pupils, it becomes imperative to provide an
19
environment conducive for the pupils to play and interact with others,
while they must be given enough time to play, for learning to take place
unconsciously.
Games, music, drama and other scholastic activities in the school
must be adequately reshaped to portray Islamic teachings. Separate
avenues must be prepared for boys and girls during sports, while a
befitting sports outfit that would not expose their bodies should be
prepared too.
In order to encourage and strengthen the Iman, as well as to enrich
their commitment to Islam, pupils must also be exposed to Islamic
centers, mosques, bookshops, libraries and prominent Muslim
personalities like Shaykhs, Muslim Obas, Emirs and others. Excursions to
important Islamic historical places will equally assist in broadening them
intellectually and spiritually.
It is equally important that such societies as Literary and Debating,
Farmers Club, Arabic Club, Junior Engineers and Technologists Society
(JETS), and others be given Islamic touch, both in their conduct and
organization.
(d) Revitalizing the Programme of Guidance:
Another major agenda in the line of action of Islamic nursery school is
to vitalise its programme of guidance in the perspective of Islam. The
school is expected to render guidance services not only to the pupils but
also to the parents. Through the school’s programme of guidance, pupils
are assisted to effect smooth transition from home to school, develop
learning skills and values and participate meaningfully in the
opportunities provided by the school in curricula and co-curricular
activities. On the part of the parents, they have the opportunity of
20
understanding their children’s educational progress as well as developing
realistic perception of their children’s development in relation to their
potentials. The guidance role of the schools calls for appointment of
trained, capable and knowledgeable staff that will be of good example for
the pupils.
The Holy Qur’an as well as the hadith of the Prophet serves as the
major guide for the pupils. In other words, whatever guide or counsel a
teacher gives the pupils must be in consonance with the dictates of
Islam. Any theory that goes contrary to this is not allowed, as the school
could not afford training the young ones contrary to the worldview of
their religion.
(e). Designing a programme for exceptional children
The inequality of human beings has different forms. We categorise
exceptional children on the basis of their peculiar natural characteristics.
These include intellectual, communication, sensory, physical and
behavioural characteristics. A child also becomes exceptional by virtue
of the fact that he loses his father at tender age. A Muslim should not be
denied his right to education because of certain physical defect in him. As
such there is the need for private Islamic nursery schools to design a
programme for exceptional children in their environment. This can take
the form of organising special schools where all the pupils who have the
same disability are gathered together. It is not too much to have Muslim
nursery school for the blind or the deaf for instance. In such special
schools, teachers specially trained to teach children with particular types
of disabilities are employed while special equipment designed for such
kind of disabilities are equally made available. Where it is too
cumbersome to have special schools, the schools should accommodate
the disabled ones in their regular schools at least to interact with their
non-disabled counterparts.
21
It needs to be mentioned that in Nigeria, the Christians have been
taking a leading role in the education of the disabled pupils. As far back
as 1914, the Iberekodo Leprosy Settlement in Abeokuta was founded by
the Church Missionary Society {CMS}. The society was equally
responsible for the establishment of the Oji River Rehabilitation Centre in
1960. The Sudan Interior Mission established the first school for the blind
in 1940 on experimental basis while the Sudan United Mission
established the Gindiri School for the Blind in Barikin Ladi near Jos in
1953. In 1962, the Catholic Mission with the assistance of the Irish
sisters of Charity established the Pacelli School for blind children at
Surulere Lagos. Also, the Wesley School for the Deaf, Yaba; and the
Ibadan Mission for the Deaf and others are the handiwork of Christian
missionaries.29 It was later that some state Governments saw the need to
complement the efforts of the missions in this laudable and highly
rewarding undertaking. It thus becomes imperative for Muslim
proprietors of private schools to stand to the task of educating the
exceptional children to check the menace of street begging. The purpose
of designing special education programme as contained in the National
Policy on Education is:
i. to give concrete meaning to the idea of equalizing
educational opportunities for their physical, mental,
emotional disabilities not withstanding,
ii. to provide adequate education for all handicapped children
and adults in order that they may fully play their roles in the
development of the nation, and
iii. to provide opportunities for exceptionally gifted children to
develop at their own pace in the interest of the nation’s
economic and technological development .30
22
In order to provide opportunity for orphans to have easy access to
education and to become useful Muslim citizens, there is the need for a
model Islamic nursery school to design a programme that will take care
of the orphans. This can be in form of providing free education for them
so that they can be brought up and trained in Islamic manner. Kind
treatment of orphans is a responsibility imposed on capable Muslims by
Allah and the prophet and its reward in the hereafter is unquantifiable. As
such, Muslim proprietors of nursery schools must see the need to have an
agenda for orphan education as a matter of religious duty.
CONCLUSION
Considering the fact that Islamic nursery schools have dual roles to
play, it becomes essential to marry and mend both Islamic and western
systems of education for fruitful result. Islamizing the curriculum of
Islamic nursery schools becomes imperative for them to function well in
the two realms. Through this, all the learning experiences the pupils are
exposed to in the school become God-centered as against Western
curriculum which is tailored along achieving material wealth of this life
alone with no consideration for the here-after. Also, the programmes of
activities, studies and guidance in the school system if Islamized prepare
and train the pupils to work as agents of Allah on earth, as against
western curriculum which has led to social degeneration, misuse of
authority and wealth and other socio-political and economic ills in the
society.
The big task ahead achieving this agenda in our educational set up
is the training of teachers to implement the Islamized curriculum. Or
how can the western-trained teachers cope with this new development?
Further still, the so-called secular texts which are inimical to Islam but
which are being used in Muslim schools serve as another cog in the
wheel of the progress of this new agenda. Thus, there is the serious and
urgent need for Muslim intellectuals and academics from various
23
disciplines to collectively and individually rise to the task of writing texts
on their areas of specialization from the perspective of their religion.
This demands combined efforts of scholars of Islamics and Muslim
scholars in other areas of disciplines. On the other hand, our schools
need to be employing competent Muslim teachers to take care of the
young ones. These teachers must be sponsored to attend various
workshops, seminars and lectures on Islamization of knowledge for them
to be well- equipped and face the challenges before them.
24
Endnotes
1. Federal Republic of Nigeria, The National Policy on Education (3rd
Edition) 1998. P. 10.
2. N. Hans, Comparative Education, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1982, pp. 254-320.
3. A.A. Adeyinka et.al “African Philosophy of Education with Particular
Reference to Nigeria” in Adekunle Akinyemi (Ed), Book of Readings in
Educational Theory and Practice, vol. 1, University of Ilorin, Institute
of Education, 1992, pp. 111-112.
4. See, The National Policy on Education, (Revised) 1981. P.10; and also
the 1998 Revised Edition, p. 11.
5. Zakarya Kandhlwi, The Teachings of Islam, London, n.p. n.d. P.205.
6. Albert Ozigi and Lawrence Ocho, Education in Northern Nigeria,
London, George Allen & Unwin, 1981. P.7.
7. M.A. Orebanjo, “The Nigeria Nursery / Primary School – The Way
Forward.” West African Journal of Education, vol. xxi No. 1. 1980. P.
13.
8. Badmos Yusuf, “An Examination of the Tradition of Qur’anic Learning
in the Ilorin Emirate of Nigeria.” Journal of Arabic and Religious
Studies (JARS), Vol. 12, University of Ilorin, Department of Religions.
Dec. 1995. Pp. 61-64.
9. Edward Wilkins, Education in Practice. London, Evans Brothers. 1976.
P. 60.
10. Nigerian Educational Research Council (NERC), Curriculum Guidelines
for Nigerian Pre- Primary (Nursery) Schools. Ibadan, Evans Brothers.
1988. Pp. 8-9.
11. Farhan Ishaq. (1989) “Islamization of the Discipline of Education”.
American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 6 No 2. Herndon,
IIIT/AMSS, 1989. Pp. 309-314.
12. N.E.R.C., Curriculum Guideline, p. 10-27.
25
13. Ayatullah Murtaza Mutahheri, Islam, Man and Universe. Karachi, The
Islamic Seminary Publications. 1990. P. 29.
14. Salaudeen Yusuf.(1991) “Islamization of Knowledge: A Workplan for
Islamic Nursery Education.” Muslim Education Quarterly .
Cambridge, The Islamic Academy, vol. 9. No. 1. 1991. P. 35.
15. See The National Policy on Education, 3rd Edition. P.9.
16. A. Babs Fawunwa, Education in the Mother tongue: A Nigeria
Experience. (The Six-year (Yoruba) medium, Primary Education
Project at the University of Ife). West African Journal of Education,
Vol. 19,No. 2. 1975. Pp. 213 – 227.
17. Salisu Sheu, “Islamizing the Education System: Toward an
Alternative Education Theory and Agenda for the Muslim Ummah in
Nigeria.” A Paper Presented at a Two-Day National Workshop in
Islamization of Knowledge jointly organized by IIIT Nigeria office and
UDUS Sokoto, 15th – 16th May 2000. P. 5.
18. B.O. Ukeje, “Schooling : The Politics, Premise, Process, Practice and
Product “ in B. Ipaye (ed): Research on Schooling in Nigeria .
Introductory Readings. Ondo, Centre for Research on Schooling,
Adeyemi College of Education . 1995. PP. 146 – 147.
19. Salisu Sheu, “Islamizing the Education System…,” p. 18.
20. Muhammad Qutb, “Religion, Knowledge and Education” in Al-Attas
(Ed.) Aims and Objectives of Islamic Education, Jeddah, King Abdul-
Aziz University & Hodder and Stoughton, 1979. P. 55.
21. Syed Ali Ashraf, New Horizons in Muslim Education, Cambridge,
Hodder and Stoughton and the Islamic Academy. 1985. P. 4.
22. Ghulam Sarwar. (1996) “Islamic Education : Its Meaning, Problems
and Prospects.” Issues in Islamic Education , London, The Muslim
Educational Trust. 1996. Pp. 13-14.
23. Interim Report on 6th International Islamic Education Conference
(First International Workshop) 20-25 September 1996, Islamic
College, Cape Town, South Africa. P. 21.
26
24. Interim Report, p. 21.
25. Ismail Raji Al-Faruqi, Toward Islamic English, U. S. A. IIIT. 1988. PP.
11-14.
26. Aliyu Umar Gwong-Wad, “Islamization of English Language and Its
Teaching in a Secular State”, Al-Ijtihad – The Journal of
Islamization of Knowledge and Contemporary Issues, Vol. 1, No. 2,
Kano, IIIT Nigeria Office, July 2000. Pp. 78-79.
27. Hussain Akande Abdul-Kareem, “What Makes an Islamic School Truly
Islamic.” A Key Note Address presented at the Annual National
Conference of the Nigerian Association of Model Islamic Schools
(NAMIS) held at Government College Apata-Ganga, Ibadan between
3rd and 5th April 2003. Pp. 7 – 8.
28. M.A. Orebanjo, “The Relationship Between Religious and Moral
Education.” West African Journal of Education, Vol. xviii No. 7.1974.
P. 444.
29. S.O. Oladipo, Elements of Special Education for Certificate Students,
Oyo, Odumatt Press and Publishers. 2000. PP. 11 – 14.
30. The National Policy on Education, 1998. P. 39.
27
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