Religious education for the 21st century

Modernisation needed. Photo: Jashim Salam/ Drik NewsZeeshan Hasan

MUCH has been written about the divide between madrasah education and standard government SSC/HSC education. However, it is worth considering this question from a fresh angle; namely, what is really valued by the public and worth retaining from the traditional madrasah approach? The answer to this question should dictate the means of unifying the various educational systems in Bangladesh.

The most valued part of madrasah education is not hard to find. Bangladesh is overwhelmingly made up of Muslims, among whom the reading of the Qur'an is universally appreciated. Middle class households who can afford it employ a local moulavi saheb to ensure that the children of the family recite the entire Qur'an at some point. Memorisation of the Qur'an is generally acknowledged as a significant act of devotion.

So, obviously, the reading of the Qur'an, which takes place in madrasah education is fulfilling an important public service; it allows poor families which may not be able to afford the services of a private maulana to fulfill their desire to have their children recite, or even memorise, the Qur'an. However, the practice of reciting the Qur'an just by repeating memorised Arabic words has a big limitation; the student understands nothing.

Here is an interesting point; the Pickthall translation of the Qur'an, along with Arabic text, is about 750 pages. That means that any child could easily read it over the course of 10 years in school by reading only 75 pages a year. This should show us the rational way of integrating religious education into SSC; have an optional SSC subject on the contents of the Qur'an in Bangla translation (studied from class 1 to 10).

Additionally, memorising 750 pages should easily be possible in 2 years (it requires memorising only 1 page a day). This then tells us how to integrate madrasah education into HSC; have an optional subject on the Arabic text of the Qur'an (studied during classes 11/12).

If we look at all the other traditional madrasah subjects (Arabic, Hadith, interpretation of the Qur'an/tafsir and Islamic law), it is immediately obvious that these do not have anything like the mass appeal of the Qur'an to the guardians of schoolchildren. No one hires a maulana to get children to read the Hadith. In fact, these subjects are of little use to anyone except a family law magistrate. In that case, they should not be part of basic primary or lower secondary education (class 1-10). They should be options only in class 11 and 12.

Arabic could be particularly useful at HSC level to ensure that the many migrant workers bound for the Middle East have a decent knowledge of the local language of their employer.

But if the SSC and HSC syllabi were revised as mentioned above, all the government-funded Alia madrasahs could be turned into regular schools. All the regular government schools and colleges would also have the option of giving their students a thorough knowledge of the Qur'an, which a considerable number of families are likely to appreciate.

The religious studies teachers who would no longer be required at Alia madrasahs could simply be moved to regular schools and colleges as Qur'an teachers. And almost everyone in Bangladesh would get the same education system; except for the non-government Qawmi madrasahs and English medium schools, which are a separate matter and need to be dealt with differently.

Zeeshan Hasan is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.