How to sanitise Islamic education – Ustaz Idris

What is responsible for the backwardness of education in public schools in Nigeria?You see my argument with experts in the field of education administration all the time is that they always talk about the backwardness in education. The truth is that it is not only education that is backward but morality is equally at the […]

What is responsible for the backwardness of education in public schools in Nigeria?
You see my argument with experts in the field of education administration all the time is that they always talk about the backwardness in education. The truth is that it is not only education that is backward but morality is equally at the backside. Education and morality go hand in hand. Even when someone is highly educated but lacks morality, his education is valueless and vice versa. The two are supposed to be working hand in hand but unfortunately, all of them have completely collapsed in Nigeria.
Most Nigerian educationists are saying the reason for the backwardness of education in Nigeria is lack of infrastructure or good environment but to me, these are secondary issues. To me, the reason for the backward of education in Nigeria is the absence of the fear of God in the heart of the teachers. When you train the heart of the teacher, you have given him the opportunity to see his profession as a Godly task and that every single minute he spends outside the class, it means Haram (unlawful earning) has gotten into his salary and that will render his prayers and fasting valueless. With this in mind, the teacher will do his best. Once you sanitize the hearts of the teachers, they would not require absolute supervision, they would teach very well.
When Sardauna of Sokoto was a student, he read in schools that were far behind most of the private schools that we now have in Nigeria. These days, the schools are more equipped and the environment much better. But now that teachers lack the fear of God, you find out that a university graduate of today cannot speak the English Sardauna was speaking. This is because the teachers of yesteryears were really teachers who wanted to teach and their emphasis was to impart knowledge and to change the character of their students. Teachers of today are looking at the job as a means of getting sustenance. They don’t look at it as a profession that needs to be protected. They don’t feel that they want the child to learn and their minds are preoccupied with the the salary they would get at the end of the month.

Unless the heart is sanitized, you cannot make any magic. Pius scholars in Islam like Imam Buhari learnt under the tree and were able to acquire thousands of hadiths. So also Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa, Azikiwe among other prominent Nigerians. They did not learned in classes that were well furnished but learned under the guide of teachers that were ready to teach; teachers whose happiness was to see that the life of the child was transformed.
Government officials at all levels are to greater extent interested in the backwardness of education in Nigeria. Starting from local, state to federal, no government is willing to get Nigerians educated and I don’t know the reason. Maybe because they have other schools they are taking their children to so that it is only their children that can inherit the seat they are occupying. They also believe that unless the children of the poor remain uneducated, their dream will not be fulfilled. 
Apart from education, all other sectors in Nigeria have rules guiding their operations. The only rule in the education sector is that once a teacher spends two years in the classroom, he is automatically qualified for in-service. If he spent 35 years, he is qualified for gratuity and pension but there is no enforceable penalty that if the teacher refused to teach and only came to class at the end of the term to give ‘areas of concentration’ to the students.  Reward and punishment must go hand in hand. What is the punishment for the principal that allows the only Chemistry teacher in the school to go for in-service without following the due process? What is the punishment for the principal who refuses to go round the school for supervision? What is the punishment for the examination bodies that allow question papers to leak? These are the rot in our schools and unless there are rules we would remain in trouble.
The third factor is lack of adequate time for the teachers to be trained. When we had Teachers Colleges, a prospective teacher must spend five or six years undergoing training and then go to the College of Education for another three years to get NCE. He also goes to the university and spends two years to get Bachelors Degree in education. If you put these years together, you get about twelve years which is enough time to produce a qualified teacher. But government in its wisdom made a law which dismissed the system and said you can be a qualified teacher in six months. You can imagine that if the government wants to register a degree holder into the Teachers Training Council, they just give you six month course or ask you to go for Post Graduate Diploma in Education. How on earth can you effectively steer the life of a student through a programme you passed through in just six month?
You cannot be a qualified doctor until you spend about 15 years undergoing training. The work of a teacher is not in any way  lesser than that of a doctor because the teacher is saddled with the responsibility of protecting the future of the child. He has to know what the characteristics of infancy state are; adulthood, adolescence and how does beating and shouting affects learning.  You also need to know what type of food aid or affect learning…it is a complete life of an individual. Unless government brings back effective processes of training for teachers, we would assume that Nigerian government does not want its people to be educated.

Some attribute poor enrolment of children in it to formal school in Northern Nigeria because of preference for Arabic education. What do you think government should do to encourage learning of both western and Qur’anic education?
I want to tell you that northern governors are making mockery of Islamic studies. You will find out that in almost all the public schools, the Islamic studies teacher is also the discipline master and he will be given a very big stick to punish students. Any student that did something wrong will be sent to the Arabic teacher and therefore the role of the Arabic teacher is to lash erring students and that makes him to be hated by the students. And once a student hates you, he will also hate the subject you are teaching and that is why you will never get any good moral training from public schools. This is one aspect.
The second aspect is the issue of the Arabic teachers. Realizing that government is not mindful of the person they employ, everybody whether he has certificate or not will just apply and become Arabic teacher and in some states, some Islamic bodies like the Jama’atu Nasril Islam have introduced programmes that you can get diplomas in few months. This is really devastating because most of our Islamic teachers are far away from the knowledge of Islamic studies.
The third factor is the Islamic studies syllabus which does not answer the yearnings and aspirations of the people. From the word go, it is scantly written, not well organized and does not agree with the age bracket of the children and does not include the methodology of teaching. The syllabus is a product of some degree holders who sat in offices and wrote their imaginations and if people that never thought Arabic in the classroom are the ones that would write the syllabus then is a big problem.
Another factor that is making Islamic subject a laughing stock in public schools is that when the Chemistry teacher is to teach, he will meet only 40 students in the class but when it is time for the Islamic studies, students of JSS I, 11, 111 and SSS 1, 11 and 111 would all be combined in one class and the teacher is left to contend with about 150 students. The teacher will just be shouting and the students would not learn anything. They would only be looking at the teacher with his stick in hand.
Again most of the Arabic teachers in public schools are very dirty, thereby cheating Islam by presenting themselves as the people that are living at the bottom of the social ladder.  They don’t know anything about medicine and science and things happening around the world. I want you as a journalist to go round all the public schools that you know and ask the students about what they would like to teach if at the end of the day they become teachers. I bet you, out of 1000 students, you will hardly get two students that would tell you they would want to become Arabic teachers.
So if government wants to make Islamic studies relevant, there has to be a syllabus that will agree with the present day public schools; that will agree with the age bracket of the student; that will agree with the changing needs of the society; that will agree with the yearnings and aspirations of the parents.
Again, there has to be an overhaul of all the Islamic teachers to allow those that qualify to teach and do away with those that do not qualify. Alhamdu Lillahi, we now have enough graduates that can handle our public schools. Just do away with the incompetent teachers. There is no need to be sympathizing with anybody that will put the life of the students at the cross-roads.  Governors should not allow unqualified people to be collecting salaries just because they voted for ANPP or the PDP.
Governments must also provide sergeants for the schools who would be playing the role of punishing the students. Arabic teachers should stop being discipline masters because it makes mockery of the subject they are teaching.