September 01, 2005
The Madrassas in Pakistan
From Despardes:
In 1956 there were only 244 madrassas in Pakistan. Recent estimates range from 13,000 to 15,000 with an enrolment of 1.5 to two million (unpublished report by Dr Saleem Ali, Islamic Education and Conflict: Understanding the Madrassahs of Pakistan). The syllabi taught in those traditional madrassas was woefully archaic since much of it was based on assumptions that the earth was flat and the sun and moon rotated around it, while the stars were fixed lights in the seven-tier heaven. The laws and moral values taught also corresponded to a static worldview that made any notion of progress beyond the severely segregated societies of the 7th to 12th centuries impossible to grasp, much less accept. (Picture from Islam.online).
More here.
Posted by Azra Raza at 06:03 AM | Permalink
Comments
Ishtiaq Ahmed is wrong. The following analysis of the madrassa phenomenon has been conducted at Harvard:
"Bold assertions have been made in policy reports and popular articles on the high and increasing enrollment in Pakistani religious schools, commonly known as madrassas. Given the importance placed on the subject...it is troubling that none of the reports and articles reviewed based their analysis on publicly available data or established statistical methodologies. This paper uses published data sources and a census of schooling choice to show that existing estimates are inflated by an order of magnitude. Madrassas account for less than 1 percent of all enrollment in the country and there is no evidence of a dramatic increase in recent years. The educational landscape in Pakistan has changed substantially in the last decade, but this is due to an explosion of private schools, an important fact that has been left out of the debate on Pakistani education."
For more, visit the following:
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/RWP/RWP05-024
Based in Stockholm, Ahmed's alarmism may have to do with his obvious lack of fieldwork. Unlike most outside commentators, however, since he's Pakistani, he should have a better handle on things. But his article repeats, parrots, conventional, polemical, and incorrect commentaries on contemporary Pakistan that one comes across in popular print media which makes one think: Ahmed is not only wrong; Ahmed is an ass.
Posted by: HMN | Sep 4, 2005 2:55:01 AM
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