By Al-Khidr Abdul Baqi,, IOL Correspondent

ABUJA, June 30 (IslamOnline.net) – Calls for reforming and developing the Islamic and Qur’anic schools in Nigeria are currently taking center stage in the western African country.

"The Qur’anic schools should rethink their curricula to keep pace with the education system of the country and face up to the contemporary challenges facing Muslims," Professor Abu Baker Abdul Rashid, the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies and Arts in Bayero University, told IslamOnline.net.

He said that though such schools master Qur’anic and religious subjects, they are lagging behind in science and foreign languages, which should be given due attention.

"The negligence of such subjects poses a serious threat to the future Muslim generations, who would be inefficient and unqualified to face a cut-throat competition in the labor market," Rashid warned.

Under the Nigerian education system, he noted, it is incumbent upon students to finish their primary grade in state-run schools before enrolling in the junior high school.

"So, the graduates of the Qur’anic schools have to go back to the primary grade to pass them to the next stage, which is simply a waste of time," explained the expert.

The call to develop the religious schools was made earlier in June by the National Authority for the Primary Education.

It asked theses schools to revamp its education system to meet the needs of the Nigerian society, expressing readiness to discuss relevant plans with educational experts.

‘Poor System’

Sheikh Salahudin Olayiwola, the head of the league of Arabic and Islamic schools' founders in Nigeria, recognized "necessity" of revamping curricula in religious schools.

He also admitted the poor infrastructure of the education system in the religious schools.

"We have now two kinds of Muslim graduates. The first badly lacks basic understanding of their religion and is ignorant about the language of Qur’an. The other, on the contrary, has thorough knowledge about Islamic subjects and master the Noble Qur’an, but lack the faintest idea about modern curricula."

Olayiwola, also the founder and director of Islamic Institute of Nigeria, said a broad section of religious school graduates belong to the second type.

"This system denies the younger Muslim generations access to decision-making and leading jobs in our country," he told IOL over the phone.

Though Olayiwola understands concerns of such schools that the reform drive might seek to marginalize the religious education in Nigeria, he said teachers should first instill Qur’an and Islam into the younger generations before opening up to other curricula, like science and math.

"Unfortunately, Muslims in Nigeria are still cautious about the pros of modern sciences," said Ismail Ishaq, the supervisor of the educational projects and religious schools of the Islamic Call Society in Kano.

He noted that many citizens still see such subjects in resentful light and totally reject them.

Reservations

However, others voiced deep concerns and expressed reservations at the teaching of modern subjects in religious schools.

Sheikh Zakaria Abdul Ghani, the director of Abdullah Bin Abbas Qur’anic school, believes that there is more to this than meets the eye.

He urged the officials in the religious schools to remain vigilant and counter such calls.

"The education system of the Qur’anic schools should remain unchanged. The younger generations should learn the Noble Qur’an by heart before joining the junior high schools," Ghani said.

The school director has no objections to modern subjects or foreign languages, but maintained that they should come later.

Some analysts said the reform drive is designed to toe the US line, which targets the education system in the entire Arab and Muslim worlds.

According to an official survey, there are 73,486 Qur’anic and Islamic schools in Nigeria, chiefly in the North, with some 16 million students.

Muslims make up 55 percent of Nigeria’s 133 million people, according to official statistics.

Forty-four percent of the Nigerians believe in Christianity.

A January poll, conducted by the independent opinion research company ICM for the BBC What The World Thinks Of God program, featured Nigeria as the most religious nation and Britain as the most secular.

Source : http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2004-06/30/article03.shtml