Islamization of Nthe Curriculum-An Agenda for Model Islamic Nursery Schools in Nigeria

8/7/2019 Islamization of Nthe Curriculum-An Agenda for Model Islamic Nursery Schools in Nigeria

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Muslim Education Quarterly, Vol.22, No.3 & 4, 2005The IslamicAcademy,Cambridge,U.K.

ISLAMIZATION OF THE CURRICULUM: AN AGENDAFOR MODEL .ISLAMIC NURSERY SCHOOLS INNIGERIA

Rafiu Ibrahim Adebayo

IntroductionPre-primary education, according to the National Policy on Education, is "theeducation given in an educational institution to children aged three to five plus priorto their entering the primary school."! The first five years of a child are very crucialand important in his life, as whateverhe is exposed to during this period has a seriousand lasting effect on him infuture. No serious government takes the education of itscitizens atthat stage with levity.In France, the central government shares the largestresponsibility of the total cost of educating the children while the local authorityprovides the remainder. In England andWales, i t is the local authorities that controland administer the pre-school education through nationally prepared guidelines. InWestGermany, the pre-primary institutions are privately owned.' This is equally thecase inNigeria.As precious as the pre-primary education is, it is sad to note that it receivedanunappreciable attention by the Nigerian government and citizens for a long time.The National Curriculum Conference held in Lagos in September 1969, as historicas it was, failed to address any issue related to pre-primary education. Rather, itfocused much on primary, secondary and tertiary education, teacher education,science and technical education as well as women's education.' The 6-3-3-4 systemof education is silent about pre-primary education as wel l. I t was not until recentlythat the Federal Government of Nigeria broke its silence on it and realized the needto have a say inthe conduct of nursery education and thus clearly stated the purposeand direction of pre-primary education inNigeria in the National Policy on Education(NPE) published in 1977 and revised i n1981 and 1998.This policy stipulates that thefirst ladder of education would be handled and manned by private individuals butmonitored by the government." Consequently, the Nigerian Educational ResearchCouncil (N .E.R.C.)started to organize series of seminars, workshops and lectures toeducate proprietors of nursery schools on how the goals ofnursery education couldbe achieved.The indelibility of the knowledge acquired by young and innocent childrensuggests the paramount importance of early childhood education. Knowledge inchildhood is likened to an engraved mark on a rock, which is difficult to rub off. Asit is better to train boys than to mend men, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)emphatically mentioned that children must be religiously educated in their early

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Islamization of the Curriculum 5stages. He asked parents to command their children to observe salat (prayer) whenthey are seven years of age. In another instance, heinstructed that the moment a childis able to distinguish between the left and t he right hands, he should be commandedto pray. They should be given elementary knowledge of Islam before this time. Thisis because a child can only be asked to pray after he has been taught what to say whilepraying, how to pray, whom to pray to and other pre-requisites of prayer. S-owingtheseed of 'tman (belief) and Islam in the heart of children was not taken lightly by thecompanions of the Prophet. Once a man was caught for drinking in Ramadan andwhen ~Jiecase was brought before 'Umar, he remarked: "Woe to you! Even ourchildren are keeping fast in this month.'?

Pre-primary education is not a new development among Muslims in Nigeria.Before the advent of Western education in the country, early Islamic and Qur'aniceducation was given prominence among the Muslims. The first stage of Qur'aniceducation started as early as the third year of life. Classes were held at Mallams'houses under the shade of trees and in the mosque premises. Major Denham andCaptain Clapperton observed that such school s were scatte red all over Nigeria, asthey saw them in places like Kuka, Katsina and Sokoto between 1821 and 1830.In1961 there were about 27,600 Qur'anic schools with a total of about 423,000 pupilsin northern Nigeria," At this level of education, emphasis was laid on learning shorterchapters of the Qur'an through repetition and by rote, the alphabet of the Arabiclanguage as wel l as the acquisi tion of some writing skills.

Inthe Nigerian situation, the reasons for establishing contemporary nurseryinstitutions are summed up in the words of Orebanjo who says:

1 ;:The increasing awareness in education result ing from the UPE(Universal Primary Education) scheme, the need for working mothersto leave their children in safe hands, the dwindling number o f domestichands, nannies and grandmothers and other factors led to theestablishment of these Institutions in urban andrural areas."

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It is an undeniable fact that nursery schools are established to create an atmospherethat is favourable for the children to use language for comparing, describing,analyzing and explaining. The language is no other than English. The mother tongueis thus relegated to the lowest ebb. Under the pretext of providing the aboveopportunities for children, the Christians started establishing nursery institutions asa means of transforming their religious culture and tenets.The failure of the Muslimsto realize that education is a product of a particular worldview and is tailored towardssome particular socio-historical and civilizational contexts, made them register theirchildren and wards into these Christian oriented schools. Before they realized it, theirchildren had started praying in Jesus' name, closing their eyes while praying andshouting Halleluyah. The little Islamic culture imbibed from home was technicallyknocked out of their hearts andinstead of developing interest in their religion, theywere taught to hate i tunconsciously.

The reaction of some conscious Muslim organizations and individuals to theevangelization plot of the Christians via nursery education culminated in theestablishment of Muslim nursery schools where Muslim working parents could leavetheir children to be exposed to Western education without losing their religious

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6 Muslim Education Quarterlyidentity. The dwindling patronage of Qur'anic schools by Muslims equally called forthe establishment of IslamicaJly or iented nursery schools. Except in rare cases, mostQur'anic schools operate only in the afternoon for children to attend after their normalWestern school hours," The financial constraint s facing most of the Qur' anic schoolsas a result of running 'free education' by them forced many of these schools tometamorphose into Islamic nursery primary schools where fees are charged andparents are ready to pay.

The involvement of Muslims inthe contemporary nursery education businessis a new development in Nigeria. Such schools are expected to caITY out dual rolesof meeting the challenges of Western education as well as creating an environmentconducive to learning Islamic oriented disciplines. In a bid to combine these tworesponsibilities, many of these schools have fallen into either of the two extremes ofintroducing too much Arabic subjects into their curriculum or giving too muchpriority to Western subjects with the result that the Islamic ones are gradually pushedout. Hence the need to propound an agenda for lslamizing the curriculum of Islamicnursery schools to enable them to func tion effectively in the two areas of Westernand Islamic education.

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ACritique of the Dominant Nursery School CurriculumVarious 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 meanwhat teachers teach and what learner s learn, it is a synonym of syllabus, course ofstudy, scheme of work, lesson note or lesson plan to some. However, such narrow andshallow definitions have been rectified by Wilkins who sees curriculum as "theoverall learning programme in a school which covers time-tabled lessons, sports,social activities and all other facilities through which the school aids the developmentof its pupils."? In other words, curriculum consists of the programme of studies,programme of activities and programmes of guidance. The programme of studiesrefers to all academic subjects offered in schools, whi le the programme of activitiesincludes inter-scholastic and inter-moral activities like athletics, school publications,music programmes, clubs and soc ie ti es , all which vitalize the curriculum. Theprogramme of guidance involves guidance services rendered in the school. Concisely,curriculum is the totality of all the experiences, planned or unplanned, which thechild is exposed to within the four walls of the school.The profanity of the aims and ob jectives of the dominant nursery schoolcurriculum is one of the serious drawbacks of the curriculum. The secularistmodernist worldview as well as the dismissal of God as a major characteristic ofWestern education generally raises its ugly head in the nur sery curriculum. Accordingto the Nigerian Educational Research Council, the general goals of nursery educationin Nigeria are:(i) To effect a smooth transition f rom home to school and to provide adequatecare and supervision for the children while their parents are at work;

To help the child to adjust to social norms;To inculcate in the child a spirit of enquiry and creativity through theexploration of nature and the local environment, playing with toys, andartistic and musical activities, etc;

(ii)(iii)

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Islamization of the Curriculum 7(iv) To teach good habits especially good health; and(v) To teach the child the basic academic skills.'?One important manifestation of the goals is that they are tailored towards producinggodless children who right from the onset of their lives are devoid of seekingknowledge of their Creator. It thus produces a materialistic personality in theindividual who looks at religion and spiritual needs as private and not basic to humanlife on this earth.'!

, In realisation of the above objectives, subjects l ike Creative Art, Social Norms,Physical and Health Education, Language and Communica tion Skil ls, MathematicalSkills as well as Scientific and Reflective Thinking are prescribed by the NigerianEducational Research Council for nursery schools. Guidelines on these subjects aremade available for effective teaching and learning .12 This further reveals the secularisttendency of nursery education curriculum. In this curriculum guideline, religiouseducation is conspicuously absent. Education without religion is like a body withoutsoul, and the absence of soul in the body makes i t hopeless, 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 drunkenbrute. It is a lamp in the hand of a thief to help him pick up the bestarticles at midnight. That is why there is not the least difference in thenature and conduct of the faithless man of today who has knowledgeand the faithless man of yesterday who had no knowledge. Af ter allwhat is the difference between the Churchills, Johnsons, Nixons andStalins of today and the Pharaohs, Genglis Khans and Attilas of yore?"

Apart from the above, any education aiming at effecting a smooth transition fromhome to school but which lacks religious education at that crucial level of educationmay be contrary to the cultural state of the environment which education must portray.It thus becomes irrelevant to the majority o fNigerians who profess one religion or theother; hence the first goal of nursery education is rendered unachievable. Realizingthis shortcoming in the nursery curriculum, some schools int roduced ReligiousEducation into their curriculum ..A sort of window dressing, Islamic Stud ies, isintroduced into some so- called Islamic nursery schools curriculum as a subject,thereby giving the false impression that pure Islamic tenets are imparted to the youngones. Or what can we say of some Christian proprietors who include Islamic Studiesas a subject into their schools' curriculum to lure unconscious Muslim parents to bringtheir children to their schools? This attitude i sconfirmed by Salaudeen when he writes:

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The inclusion of Islamic Studies in most of the nursery schools issimply to make them attractive to Muslim parents who will assumethat the aspect of Islamic education is being taken care of. In fact, it ismerely window-dressing."

The force of homogenization, hegemonization and Europeanization in the name ofglobalization has eroded not only the Islamic culture from the innocent minds of theyoung pupils, but also their natural language. The medium of instruction in the


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8 Muslim Educat ion Quarterlyconventional nursery schools is English. The standard of nursery schools is measuredby the leve l o f the ir students' mastery of the language. Withou t any doub t, English isthe lingua franca in every nursery school in Nigeria. This, however, is at the expenseof the mother tongue, which according to the National Policy on Educat ion should bethe prescribed language o f ins truction at that level of education. IS This creates a gapbetween the theory and practice of education in the country. According to Fafunwa,instruction through the mother tongue at the ear ly stage of educat ion helps to developcuriosity, manipulative ability, manual dexterity, mechanical comprehension and thehand-eye coordination." One evil effect of emphasizing a foreign language over themother tongue is that it isolates children fr om their cultu re and from their nature. Theythus become specialists in a foreign language, unable to use their own mother tongueand unab le to function well in their own world. Thus, education at this stage fails to playthe role of cultural transformation and preservation, whereas according to AI-Attas"education preserves the basic structure of society by conserving all that is worthwhilein ba sic values and institutions by transmitting them to the next generation and byrenewing cultur e afre sh whenever degeneration, stagnation or loss of values occurs."?

Another significant problem with nu rsery education in Nigeria is the siting ofthe nursery schools. The use of residential houses and face-to-face type of rooms asclassrooms is one of the common characteristics o f nursery schools in the country.Some are even located very near market squares directly on the main road, whilelarge halls, verandas, garages and sheds with varying degrees of ventilation,sanitation, illumination, equipment and infrastructure are the physical features ofmany of these schools. As a result of this lack of available space in some of theseschools, the provision for outdoor activities is grossly inadequate while the mannerof overcrowding of pupils in the classrooms is quite outrageous. The case is notdifferent even in publ ic primary schools. Lamenting on the pathetic status of publicprimary schools, the ex-minister of Education, Iyorchia Ayu noted, "not many schoolscould boast of desks, dusters, chalk and staff quarters. Overcrowded classrooms anddilapidated structures remained the typical feature of pr imary school system.?"

Another glar ing shortcoming of the government policy on nursery education isthat it makes no provision for the government's pre-pr imary schools, which can serveas a model for the ones established by private individuals and voluntary organizations.Coupled wi th this is the influence o f materialism on the government policy itself. Atdifferent levels, the government charges exorbitant amount of money as registrationand annual renewal fees. This restricts nursery education to the middle cadre of thesoc ie ty who can afford the high fees charged by these schools in order for them tomeet the financial demand of the government. Thus , governmen t regulations guidingthe e stablishment of private nursery schools connote that the proprietors must notnecessarily 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 feesto the government. The throat-cutting school fees consequent upon the governmentcharges no doubt adds to the burden of the Muslims community, as many cannot affordto pay due to the size of the family in addition to other factors such as indolence andinsensitivity on their part, as noticed by Shehu.!? Thus the backwardness of theMuslims in the acquisition of nursery education is imminent.

With the above critical appraisal of the contemporary nursery educationsystem, we contend that there is a need for the Muslims to design and formulate their

Islamization of the Curriculum 9own nursery education by Islamizing the curriculum of the Muslim schools or elsethey will find their schools as centres of promoting ant i- Islamic education, centr es ofIslamic marginalization and centres of breeding Muslim children against theworldview and culture of their religion.

An Agenda for Islamic Nursery SchoolsThe only available course of action for all Islamic nursery schools is no other thanIslamizing their curriculum. This becomes incontestable in view of the dual rolesexpec ted of any Islamic school, namely, functioning effectively as a centre for thepropagation of Islamic culture and production of people who will be effectivelyfunctional in the con temporary Nigerian situation in terms of Western education.Failure to Islamize the curriculum means, an Islamic school will incredulously beundoing its worldview and will be producing un-Islamic Muslims. This is also theview of Qutb who succinctly put forward two suggestions on how to avoid such apathetic situation, saying:

If we are serious about giving r eligion its true place in educationalcurricula, we have to do two things almost simultaneously. First, wemust not restrict religious guidance to the formal traditional lesson.Second, we must reconsider the syllabuses devised for this particularlesson and re-evaluate them in most parts of the Muslim world. Theobjective of religious education is to produce a Muslim man or woman.This end cannot be achieved through a few disintegrated pieces ofreligious information to be learnt by heart and tested at the end of theschool year, especially if one's concepts, attitudes, morals and modesof behaviour are all non- or anti- Islamic.PA curriculum becomes Islamized when its programmes of studies, activities

and guidance in a school are enr iched and vitalised with Islamic teachings andprinciples. So, by the Islamization of the curriculum, we mean the practice ofintellectual and other planned and unplanned activities in the school based on theIslamic concept of the universe, life and man, which a child is e xposed to under thecontrol of the school. In thi s regard, the agenda for Islamizing the curriculum involvesthe following.(a) Reformulation of aims and objectives of Nursery EducationThe secular nature of Western education has been a major concern for the Muslimintellectuals. The mundane and profane nature o f Wes tern education takes ca re of theterrestrial world with no consideration at all for the celestial world. Thus acomprehensive Islamic philosophy of ~ducation was defined in the First WorldConference on Muslim Education in 1977 a s follows:

Education should aim at the balanced growth of the total personality ofMan through the training of Man's spirit, intellect, rational self, feelingsand bod ily senses. Education should cater ther efore for the growth ofMan in all its aspects: spiritual, intellectual, imaginative, physical,


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(i) Mathematical SkillsThe knowledge ofmathematics becomes imperative in any Islamic school curriculumconsidering its indispensability in religious rituals and practices like salat, rakat, hajjand other religious ceremonies that require scientific understanding of the lunarcalendar. The laws of inheritance as well as waqf require proper knowledge ofmathematics too.Counting and recognizing numbers, symbols, shapes and colours will be ofimmense assistance for nurseryschool children to identify objects, colours of vehicles,car numbers and home addresses. A proper handling of the subject by competentteachers will assist the pupils to recognize the mighty power of Allah in creating

scientific, linguistic, both individually and collectively and motivateall these aspects towards goodness and the attainment of perfection.The ultimate aim of Muslim education lies in the realisation ofcomplete submission to Allah on the level of the individual, thecommunity and humanity at large 21

The above aim of education shows a balanced in teraction between the belief system,the knowledge system and the value system, which does not exist in the Westerneducation system. As such, we want to uphold the aims and objectives for setting upan Islamic nursery school as itemized by a s cholar thus:(i)(ii)

To prepare and train the future generation to work asagentsof Allah on earth.To inculcate in the child the sense of love, care, affection, humility, equity,honesty, integrity, justice and other values based on Islamic e thics.To develop in the child a spirit of enquiry and creativity through theexploration of nature and local environment so that he becomes conscious ofhis responsibility to develop himself andhis environment for the benefit of thehuman race and his consequent accountability inthe next world.To teach thechildthe basic academic skills based on Islamic epistemology.Toproduce a conducive Islamic environment for the proper upbringing of thechild andthe development of his facultiesto realise the full potential of people.To putin place amenities, both human and material, for all round developmentof the child, spiritual, moral, mental, cultural and material in p reparation forthe adult life."

(iii)

(iv)(v)(vi)

(b) Reconstruction of Programmes of StudiesFor any Islamic nursery school to function effectively in contemporary modem li feand for its products to interact meaningfully with their immediate environment,adoption of the Western curriculum is very essential. However, suchcurriculum needsto be adapted to suit the Islamic taste. In other words, it needs to be enriched withIslamic ethics and values in such a way that the aims and objectives of Islamiceducation can be realized in the realm of the Western curriculum. Through this, itsprofane and secular nature will be replaced by divine and spiritual values. It is ourconsidered opinion that the following subjects should be taught from the Islamicperspective in Islamic nursery schools:

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Islamization of the Curriculum 11natural objects in various shapes, sizes and colours. As the Qur'an encourages findingsolutions to problems, pupils are also exposed to solving mathematical problemsusing counting sticks, bottletops, stones, seeds, matchsticks and some other materials.With this they will be 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 given an Islamic colour by using Islamic values, concepts and beliefsand by using Islamic terminology wherever appropriate.(ii) English LanguageEnglish is a medium of instruction in Nigeria through which effective instructionwith others outside the child's environment can take place. Any attempt to downgradethe teaching of English in any Islamic school is like an attempt to create a wide gapbetween the Muslims and the English speaking people in the fields of scientific,economic, military and cultural achievements.

It was the concession of the Muslim scholars who attended the SixthInternational Islamic Education Conference heldin the Republic of South Africa thatthe goals of teaching the English language in Islamic schools are "to enable learnersto develop to the ful l their potential, to understand and use the language so that theymay become better practising Muslims who will enjointhat which isright and eschewevil. The spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional and cultural development of thelearner will also be targeted via the teaching and learning of the language."?' Therationale behind teaching the language in Islamic schools is summed up in thefollowing statement as contained in t he report:

The mastery of the spoken and written form of English will equip thepresent and future generations not only to withstand the universalbarrage ofpropaganda and misinformation about Islam,buta lso to usethe language for the purpose of Da' wah aswell as for the upliftment ofthe Urnmah."In Islamic schools, the teachers teachingEnglish as a school subject must bewell

equipped with Islamic knowledge so that they are able to conect mistakes about theirreligionas contained in someEnglish texts. Such spellingmistakes as 'Moslem', insteadof 'Muslim', 'Mecca' instead of 'Makkah', 'Mohammed' instead of 'Muhammad' are tobe corrected by them following the common transliteration style used by the LibraryofCongress. It is equally asserted byAl-Faruqi that attempts by some scholars to translateuntranslatable Arabic words into English had led to the distortion of the originalmeanings of such words. In such cases, the actual words must be applied while theirmeanings are explained." Closely related to this is that some dictionary meanings ofIslamic terminologies have been distorted or wrongly interpreted. 'Mohammed', forinstance,is interpretedas "the prophetwho formed theMuslimreligion", while 'Muslim'is defined as"a person of the religion started by Mohammed." Gwong-Wad has rightlyobserved that the opportunity of the flexibility and richness of the English languagecoupledwith the receptive nature of its nouns to acept new entries of lexical terms, hasbeen used as a weapon in the hands of non-Muslim users to discredit and disreputeIslam." To drive home his point, he cited the Longman Dictionary of ContemporaryEnglish which makes the entry of 'Mecca' in small letter 'rn', violating the language


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(iii) Social NormsUnder this subject, pupils are exposed to learning social habits such as correctgreetings, respect for others, obeying simple instructions, toilet habits, proper dressinghabits, knowing oneself and one' s family, learning to use socially acceptedexpressions for requests and appreciation and knowing about the neighbourhood.Through the study ofman and his environment in general, pupils' hearts are openedto the fear and love of Allah, their Creator.

12 Muslim Education Quarterlyrule of proper nouns, It thus becomes the responsibility ofan English teacher to beconscious of these and avoid teaching his pupils such wrong concepts, while givingapproved Islamic concepts in theirproperforms.

It has to be noted that some steps have been taken to discourage the learningof English alphabets based on the conventional secular "A for Apple, B for Ball"method; andthis has been replaced by learning Allah's attributes through an Englishalphabetical rhyme. A professor has put forward the following:

A is for ALLAH, YesALLAH is our only True GodB is for ALLAH, The Beneficent tAr-RahmanyC is for ALLAH, The Compassionate (Ar-Ra/:lrm)D is for ALLAH, The Dominant (Al-Qahhar)E is for ALLAH, The Everlasting (AI-Baqr)F is for ALLAH, The Forgiver (Al-Ghafar)G is for ALLAH, The Guide (AI-Hadr)H is forALLAH, The Holy (Al-Quddus)I is forALLAH, The Inheritor (Al- Warith)J is for ALLAH, The Judge (Al-lfakam)K is for ALLAH, The King (AI-Malik)L is for ALLAH, The Light of Heavens and Earth (An-Nur)M is for ALLAH, The Mighty (Al- 'Az[z)N is for ALLAH, The Noble (AI-Majrd)o is for ALLAH, The Opener (Al-Fatta/:l)P is for ALLAH, The Patron (AI- Waliyy)Q isfor ALLAH, The Quickner (Al-Mu/:lyr)R is forALLAH, The Reproducer iAl-Mu'tdiS is for ALLAH, The Sustainer (Ar-Razzaq)T is for ALLAH, The True and The Truth (Al-lfaqq)U is forALLAH, The Ultimate (AI-Akhir)V is for ALLAH, The Vast (AI-Wasi')W is forALLAH, TheWise iAl-HaktmiX is for ALLAH, The Xylographer (AI-Muqrt)Y is forALLAH, The Yield (An-Nafi')Z is for ALLAH, The Zenith (Al- 'Aliyy)27

Although the rhyme above can hardly be taught with relevant instructional materialsto facilitate effective teaching and learning, learning it by rote will sharpen the brainof the pupils and it will equally give them the opportunity of memorizing theattributes of Allah without much tears.

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Islamization of the Curriculum 13Pupils must also be exposed to correct Islamic greetings and responses. They

must be taught to say al-hamdu Zillah (praise be to Allah) whenever they sneeze,instead of "Excuse me". The expression yarhamuka' lldh. (MayAllah's Blessings beupon you) must be said by a second person instead of 'sorry' by him while thecOJTespondingreply yahdikumu'llah. (May Allah guide you) be said by the personwho sneezed to the second person,

(iv) Scientific and Reflective Thinking,.The objective of teaching science in any Islamic nursery school is for the child toobserve nature and to reflect on the beauty and wonder of nature and be aware ofAllah as the Provider ofeverything.

For proper integration of scientific and Reflective Thinking into the Islamicschool curriculum, we strongly suggest a practical approach whereby pupils, forinstance, are practically involved in planting of seeds , watching and observing theirgrowth. Pupils must be taken to flower gardens, river, poultry and animal farms forthem to see the wonders of Allah. They should be shown such natural objects as thesky, sun, rain, stars and many others while relevant examples must be drawn fromthem aswell, This, to a large extent, will assist them to ponder and realise the onenessof Allah, their Creator.(v) Islamic StudiesIn order to foster the spiritual, emotional and intellectual consciousness of Islamamong the pupils and to inculcate and develop 'tman (belief), taqwa (piety), love forIslam, Islamic identity and noble characters in the pupils, Islamic Studies isparamount among the subjects to be taught in any viable Islamic nursery school. Tostart with, a conducive Islamic atmosphere needs to be ensured. Simple Islamicetiquettes, and such topics as the pillars ofIslam, 'tman andits attributes, the primarysources of the Islamic Law, namesof some prophets, theAttributes ofAllah and otherrudiments of Islamic Studies are expected to be taught.

Morality is another aspectof Islamic education a child should be exposed to.It is generally admitted that religious education has a crucial role to play in anyeffective moral education programme. Morality can be injected into the pupilsthrough telling storiesof different personalities in Islam aswell as living by practicalexamples of the teachers. In short, such virtues as goodness to parents, obedience toauthority, friendliness, honesty, kindness are expected to be inculcated in the pupilsin Islamic schools so that they may grow as moral human beings.(vi) Qur'anic ArabicArabic is the universal language of Islam. It is the language of the Qur'an and thelanguage of the formal worship in Islam. As no one can study Islam effectivelywithout having the knowledge of Arabic, it becomes incumbent upon any Islamicnursery school to introduce Arabic and the Qur 'an into its curriculum, Through this,the pre-primary Islamic school is able to function properly as an Islamic nurseryschool with provision of a solid foundation in Islamic education including the abilityto read the Qur 'an inArabic. It is when this is achieved that the problems of producinghalf-baked Islamists and graduates in Islamic Studies who cannot read the Qur 'an in


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" 14 Muslim Education Quarterly," its original language will be checked r ight from the grassroots level.

A child of nursery age must be able to recognise and identify letters of theArabic alphabet and vowels. He should be able to recite some Arabic rhymes andpoems and mention some objects in Arabic. Memorization of short chapters of theQur'an should also be introduced to train the child's memory. The use of audio-visualaids could be of immense importance for the teachers to arouse the interest of thepupils inthe memorization exercise.(c) Reshaping the Programme of ActivitiesAs a matter of fact, all academic programmes in any Islamic nursery school must beaccompanied by programmes of activities, which promote incidental learning throughplay. Play is as important to children as food. It is the major preoccupat ion of everychild before he is old enough to go to school. Through play, he learns how to handlethe objects around him, develops physically and socially, and through his interactionswith others, he develops morally. As such, play should be constructively monitoredfor learning to take place informally. Enough play materials andeducative toys mustbe made available for thepupils to boost their learning. Since a corrupt environmentcan corrupt the best of natures, while a good environment can encourage and sustainthe best that is within pupils, it becomes imperative to provide an environment forthem to play and interact with others, while they must be given enough time to playfor learning to takeplace unconsciously.Games, music, drama and other scholastic activities in t he school must beadequately reshaped to portray Islamic teachings. Separate sports activities must beorganized for boys and girls during physica l education lessons, and they must alsowear Islamic dress during such activities so that their bodies are not exposedindecently.

In order to encourage and strengthen the 'tman, as well as to enrich theircommitment to Islam, pupils must also be encouraged to attend Islamic centers,mosques, bookshops, libraries, and meet prominent Muslim personalities likeShaykhs, Muslim Obas, Emirs and others. Excursions to important Islamic historicalplaces will equally assi st in broadening the ir horizons intellectually and spiritually.

It is equally important that such societies as Literary and Debating Societies,Farmers Club, Arabic Club, Junior Engineers and Technologists Society (JETS) beIslarnically-oriented, both in their conduct andorganization.(d) Revitalizing the Programme of GuidanceAnother major item in the line of acti on of an Islamic nursery school is to vitalize itsprogramme of guidance inthe light o f Islam. The school is expected torender guidanceservices not only to the pupils but also t o the parents. Through the school's programmeof guidance, pupils are assisted to experience smooth t ransition from home to school,develop learning skills and values and participate meaningfully inthe opportunitiesprovided by the school curricular and co-curricular activities. On the part of theparents, they have the opportunity of understanding their children's educationalprogress as well as developing realist ic perception of their children's development inrelation to their potential. The guidance role of the schools calls for the appointmentof trained, capable and knowledgeable staffwho will be role models for the pupils.

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Islamization of the Curriculum 15The Holy Qur'an and the Hadtth of the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) serve as the major

guide for the pupils. In other words, whatever guidance orcounsel a teacher gives thepupilS, must be in consonance wi th the dictates of Islam. Any theory that goescontrary to this must not be allowed, as the school cannot afford to trai n t he youngagainst the teachings of their religion.(e) Designing a programme for exceptional children (children with specialeducational needs),.The inequality of human beings has different forms. We categorize exceptionalchildren on the basis of their peculiar natural characteristics. These includeintellectual, communicative, sensory,physical and behavioural characteristics.Achildalso becomes exceptional, for example, by virtue of the fact that he l oses his fatherat a tender age. A child should not be denied his right to educat ion because of certainphysical defects in him. As such there is the need for private Islamic nursery schoolsto design a programme for such children. This can take the form of organizing specialschools where al l the pupils who have the same disability are gathered together. It isnot too much to have aMuslim nursery school for the blind or the deaf, for instance.In such special schools, teachers specially trained to teach children wi th particulartypes of disabilities are employed, and special equipment designed to aid childrenwith such kind of disabilities is also made available. Where it is t oo cumbersome tohave special schools, the existing schools should accommodate the disabled ones atleast to allow them to interact with their non-disabled peers.

It needs to be mentioned that in Nigeria, the Christians have been taking aleading role inthe education of t he disabled pupils. As far back as 1914, theIberekodoLeprosy Settlement inAbeokuta was founded by the Church Missionary Society(CMS). The society was equally responsible for t he establishment of the Oji RiverRehabilitation Centre in 1960.The Sudan InteriorMission established thefirst schoolfor the blind in 1940 on experimental basis while the Sudan United Missionestablished 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 establishedthe Pacelli School for blind children at Surulere Lagos. Also, the Wesley School forthe Deaf, Yaba; and t he Ibadan Mission for the Deaf and others are the handiwork ofthe Christian missionaries." It was later that some state Governments saw the needto complement the efforts of the missions in this laudable and highly rewardingundertaking. It thus becomes imperative for Muslim proprietors of private schools tostand t o t he task of educating the exceptional children to check the menace of streetbegging. The purpose of designing special education programme as contained intheNational Policy on Education is:(i) to give concrete meaning to the ideaof equalizing educational opportunities,

their physical, mental, emotional disabilities notwithstanding,(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 technologicaldevelopment."


7/7

16 Muslim Education Quarterly.'

" ii In order to provide opportunity for orphans to have easy access to educat ion and to

become useful Muslim citizens, there is the need for a model Islamic nursery schoolto design a programme that wi ll take care of the orphans. This can be in the form ofproviding free education for them so that they can be brought up and trained inIslamic manner. Kind treatment of orphans is a responsibility imposed on capableMuslims by Allah and the prophet and its reward in the hereafter is beyond measure.As such, Muslim proprietors of nursery schools must see the need to have an agendafor orphan education as a mat ter of religious duty.ConclusionConsidering the fact that Islamic nursery schools have a dual role to play, it becomesessential to marry and mend both Islamic and Western systems of education forfruitful results. Islamizing the curriculum of Islamic nursery schools becomesimperative for them to function wel l in these two realms. Through this, all the leamingexperiences the pupils are exposed to in the school become God-centered as againstthe Western curriculum which is tailored along achieving material wealth of this lifealone with no consideration for the hereafter. Also, the programmes of activities,studies and guidance in the school system, if Islamized, prepare and train the pupilsto work as agents of Allah on earth, as against the Western curriculum which has ledto social degeneration, misuse of authority and wealth and other socio-political andeconomic ills in our society.The big task ahead to achieve this goal in our educational set up is the t rainingof teachers to implement the Islamized curriculum. Or, how can the Western-trainedteachers cope with this new development? Furthermore, the secular texts which areinimical to Islam are being used in Muslim schools. So, there is a serious and urgentneed for Muslim intellectuals and academics from various clisciplines to rise collectivelyand individually to the task of writing textbooks on their areas of specialization fromthe perspective of their religion. This requires combined efforts of scholars of Islamand scholars of other disciplines. Moreover, our schools need to employ competentMuslim teachers to take care of the pupils. These teachers must be sponsored to attendvarious workshops, seminars and lectures on Islamization of knowledge for them to bewell-equipped and prepared to face the challenge before them.

Notes1. Federal Republic ofN igeria, 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 wi th Particular Reference to

Nigeria" in Adekunle Akinyerni (Ed.), Book of Readings in Educational Theory andPractice, vol. I, University of Ilorin, Institute of Education, 1992, pp. lll-112.

4. See, The National Policy on Education, (Revised) 1981, p. 10; and also the 1998 RevisedEdition, p. 1l.5. Zakarya Kandhalwi, 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 WayForward," WestAfrican

Islamization of the Curriculum 17Journal of Education, vol. xxiNo.1, 1980, p. 13.

8. Badrnos Yusuf, "An Examination of the Tradition of Qur'anic Learning in the IlorinEmirate of Nigeria," Journal ofArabic and Religious Studies (JARS), Vol. 12,Universityof Ilorin, Department of Religions, Dec. 1995,pp. 61-64.

9. EdwardWilkins, Education in Practice, London, Evans Brothers, 1976, p. 60.10. Nigerian Educational Resea rch 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. 10-27.13. AyatulJahMurtaza Mutahheri,Islam, Man and Universe, Pakistan, The Islamic Seminary,1977, p. 29.14. Salaudeen Yusuf. (1991) "Islamization of Knowledge: A Workplan for Islamic NurseryEducation," Muslim Education Quarterly, Cambridge, The Islamic Academy, vol. 9, No.1, 1991,p. 35.

15. See TheNational Policy on Education, 3rdEdition, p. 9.16. A. Babs Fawunwa, "Education in the Mother tongue: ANigerian Experience (The Six-year(Yoruba medium), Primary Education Project at the University of Ife)", West AfricanJournal of Education, Vol. 19, No.2. 1975, pp. 213-227.

17. Salisu Sheu, "Islamizing the Education System: Toward anAlternative Education Theoryand Agenda for the Muslim Ummah inN igeria," a paper presented at a two-day NationalWorkshop on Islamization of Knowledge jointly organized by IIIT Nigeria office andUDUS Sokoto, 15th-16th May 2000, p. 5.

18. B.O. Ukeje, "Schooling: The Politics, Premise, Process, Practice andProduct" in B. Ipaye(Ed.), Research on Schooling in Nigeria, Introductory Readings, Ondo, Centre forResearch on Schooling, Adeyemi College of Education, 1995, pp. 146-147.19. Salisu Sheu, "Islamizing the Education System ... ," see note 17, p.18.

20. Muhammad Qutb, "Religion, Knowledge and Education" inA I-Attas (Ed.), Aims andObjectives of Islamic Education, Jeddah, King Abdul-Aziz University & Hodder andStoughton, 1979, p. 55.

21. SyedAli Ashraf, New Horizons inMuslim Education, Cambridge, Hodder andStoughtonand 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 InternationalWorkshop) 20-25 September 1996, Islami~ College, Cape Town, South Africa, p. 21.24. Interim Report, p. 21.25. Ismail Raj iAI-Faruqi, Toward Islamic English, U.S.A. IIIT, 1988, pp. 11-14.26. Aliyu Umar Gwong-Wad, "Islamization ofEnglish Language and its Teaching ina Secular

State", Al-Ijtihtid- The Journal of Islamization of Knowledge and Contemporary Issues,Vol. I, No.2, Kano , IIIT Nigeria Office, July 2000, pp. 78-79.

27. Hussain Akande Abdul-Kareem, "What Makes an Islamic School Truly Islamic." A KeyNote Address presented at theAnnual National Conference of the Nigerian Association ofModel Islamic Schools (NAMIS) held at Government College Apata-Ganga, Ibadanbetween 3rd and5th April 2003, pp. 7-8.

28. S.O. Oladipo, Elements of Special Educption for Certificate Students, Oyo, Odumatt Pressand Publishers, 2000, pp. 11-14.

29. The National Policy on Education, 1998, p. 39.

Documents

Islamization of Nthe Curriculum-An Agenda for Model Islamic Nursery Schools in Nigeria