Secondary school where professors teach

  Because here, in this room, time table of professors have been shuffled and rescheduled, their class duties have been assigned and allocated, and more PhDs have been managed than many departments in our universities.The office, though not exactly forthcoming with handsomeness and solid furnishing, proclaims a place of ideas.  But the principal is not […]

  Because here, in this room, time table of professors have been shuffled and rescheduled, their class duties have been assigned and allocated, and more PhDs have been managed than many departments in our universities.
The office, though not exactly forthcoming with handsomeness and solid furnishing, proclaims a place of ideas.  But the principal is not in today. And his whereabouts, in itself, is a poignant statement on the stock Asma’u Islamic College Sokoto puts on its staff’s academic qualification: this day, the principal has gone to see his PhD thesis supervisor.
“The school was founded in 1991,” began Mal Muhammad Sambo Yusuf Al Hamdani, the deputy chairman of the board of trustees (BOT) of Asma’u Islamic College. “Our student population is about 1200.  The name of the school was borrowed from Nana Asma’u, the daughter of Uthman Dan Fodio, herself a reputable scholar who would serve as a model to the girls, an apt name, since this is a girls college,” he said.
“Over the years, we’ve had professors and PhDs who have thought here.” Hear my count, Malam Sambo seemed to say, then he overwhelmed us with names of professors, deans, PhDs and HODs who have taught or are still teaching at this secondary school. “The ones I can remember off the top of my head are, Professor L.G. Hassan, Prof. Sani Umar Musa, Prof. Yusuf Said, Dr. Abubakar Umar (Mai Hankali), Dr. Umar Altine Aliyu (Director of the school), Dr. Ibrahim Muhammad Liman, Dr. Muhammad Aminu Bayawa, Dr. Yakubu Aliyu Gobir, Dr.Tahir Muhammad Argungu (who’s our secretary of BOT), Dr. Mukhtari Alti, Dr. Ismaila Alfa Adamu, Dr. Adamu Abdullahi, Dr. Isa Muhammad Mai Shanu, etc.  They’re many others whom I can’t recall now.”
As to be expected, the former students of these over-qualified teachers are everywhere and in every field.  In medicine alone, the school has up to nine former students who are now medical doctors and up to 19 of them who are between UG1 (the first year) and UG6 (the last year) of their medical degrees.
Dr. Fatima Birnin Yawuri, a medical doctor who works at Uthman Dan Fodio University Teaching Hospital, was one of the first students to graduate from Asma’u College. “We were the first set to enroll and naturally, also the first to graduate from Asma’u Islamic College,” she said.  “That was in 1998. Then many parents didn’t want to send their female children to school; rightly or wrongly, they tried to insulate their daughters from the influence of Western education.  Thus, when Asma’u College was founded as an Islamic institution, it allayed some of the fears of the parents.  However, this Islamic outlook also plunged the school into an immediate dilemma, that is, some parents believed the school had no future.  They wouldn’t accept the fact that we received blended education drawing from both Islamic and Western curriculums.  In fact, many people said we knew the sciences of the Qur’an but we didn’t know anything in as regards the so-called secular education.  However, this image quickly changed when I graduated with the best mathematics result in the entire Sokoto State – some would say including Kebbi and Zamfara states.
“This result immediately sets some things in motion.  Many individuals and institutions – especially the government became excited about Asma’u College.  The governor visited.  The commissioner of education then was Hajiya Kulu Haruna.  She promised to assist the school with two teachers.  Since then, the community and others started appreciating the quality of the school and people began to enroll their wards in numbers, from far and wide.  The school has helped me with my choices in life. It has guided me to do things chiefly for the face of Allah.”
The chairman, board of trustees (BOT) of the school, Alhaji Muhammad Bello Malam said they’ve achieved their aim of starting Asma’u College.  The aim being: “To get our female children to study beyond primary school since we’ve observed that in our geo-political zone the education of a female child stops at the primary school level.” He added: “We felt this should be changed to beyond the primary to the tertiary level. So far we’ve achieved our aim because, to say nothing of the other fields, from Uthman Dan Fadio University alone, we’ve six students who graduated as doctors.  There also paramedical courses being studied or completed by our former students.  Some of them are pursuing various fields of sciences and other branches of knowledge; some are reading BA Hausa, BA Arabic and those who are married also, we usually receive positive feedback from their husbands who said they’re comfortable with the level of education attained by their wives.”
Dr. Adamu Abdullahi, a lecturer at Uthman Dan Fodio University and one of the board members, informed Weekly Trust that the school draws no distinction between Western and Islamic education.  “As far as we’re concerned, many of the aspects of science so called Western education are Islamic education because they were established by Islamic scholars who drew their inspirations from the Qur’an.  For example Abu Musa Al-Kwawrizmi, a Muslim mathematician perfected the use of mathematical programming to solve real world problem.  In fact the word Algorithm is a Western corruption of his name Al-Kwawrizmi. Where would the scientific world be today without the knowledge of Algorithm?” He asked.
“It is the same thing with Algebra,” he continued.  “The Muslim scholars gave the modern world Algebra.  The word itself is from Arabic word Al-jabr.  These are only two examples out of hundreds. Yet, without Algebra, we wouldn’t go far in calculus, physics, chemistry, economics and so forth.  So Muslims who discouraged their children from Western education are ignorant and misguided. There’s the need to separate Western culture and from Western education, which if you look closely, is anything but Western.”
When Weekly Trust finally connected with the principal of Asma’u College, Malam Nasir, he said the school has out-performed many public secondary schools in exit examinations.  “For example, we were the best in 2012 among government sponsored students. My comparison is within this category because like public schools, Sokoto State government helps us pay our examination fees,” the principal said.
However, the school also has an enviable tradition of outshining even the reputable private schools.  “We’ve won many competitions against all the big private secondary schools in Sokoto State,” Malam Sambo Al Hamdani said.  “Name any good private school, and you’ll discover that we’ve beaten them in one competition or the other,” he said.
Dr. Fatima Gulumbe, another medical doctor, also benefitted from the unique system of Asmau College. “I came to the school with a diploma in science laboratory technology.  Unknown to many, I wasn’t a student but a teacher.  But I received enough counseling from the professors and Islamic scholars teaching then to earn the bragging rights of being a graduate of that amazing institution. We were told [by the founders] that the society needed our services and therefore should endeavour to make any sacrifices necessary to fulfill our ambitions that would benefit society.
“Then I was teaching and also studying for my medical degree.  When the pressures of studies and teaching – coupled with my family demands became tasking, I left the school in 2002. I remember that out of the first set, who were only six in number, two became medical doctors one went to Sudan where her husband was and the other went to Usman Danfodio University.”
Malama Hassana, who’s now the Vice Principal of the school, used to be a student here.  “I decided to come back here to teach because we received excellent education from our teachers – better than what students from other schools received. Moreover, at that time, many people didn’t care much about the education of the girl child beyond the Islamic lessons they received at home.  Honestly we were well-counseled in making choices, thus, I decided to come back and pitch in, the way everybody was doing.”
“When I finished I went to Shehu Shagari College of Education to study for an NCE in Arabic and Islamic studies.  Then I went to study another diploma in science laboratory technology.  After that, I went for my HND in microbiology.  I deliberately took such a wide scope in my education to give myself the capability to do more and help our girls achieve more.”
To Professor L. G. Hassan, teaching in the school was an easy decision for him to make, “I followed the Qur’an injunction of helping to raise an educated Ummah.  Many of us started, but for others, the ambition of doing this work was pushed aside by the realities of lecturing.  I started in 1996 and I’ve been doing it to this day.  I teach the students chemistry.”
The chairman of Sokoto North local government in whose domain the school is located and who visited Asma’u College with our reporter, expressed pleasure at the achievements of the college. “It is education,” the chairman, Malam Abdullahi M. Hassan said, “Nothing else.  It’s the only thing we can give our children. I pray the story of Asma’u College would inspire other communities in the North to adopt their education model.”