Redesigning The Curriculum
Acdepting the dual classification given above, the main job of educators and experts is to establish detailed links between Group I (Perennial Knowledge) and Group II (Acquired Know- Iwdge) and then design the curriculum. As stated at the very beginning the second premise for this designing is the psycholo gical development of children Detailed researches in this area have established broadly three stages of growth for the sake of convenience termed for curriculum designing as Primary, Secon dary and Teritary or Higher.
The following are the pattern of the curricula and the objectives to be aimed at indicating the are as to be covered at each stage and the method by which the curriculum can become Islamic in character.
Read Too: Reclassification Of Knowledge
PRIMARY
As children assimilate very quickly and imitate what they see, hear and feel, It is necessary to teach them both through examples and through practice the fundamentals of Islam. They should lear form teachers, and from text-books truths about Islam grow up as Muslim Children.
Instructional programmers should be concrete and not theoretical though the basic ideas have to be indicated, institutional encironment should reflect the Islamic ideal and healthy group activities should be guided by the exemplary od teachers and elders.
At this stage the following disciplines should be inculcated thourgh instructional material suitable for different age groups.
1. Teaching the Holy Quran (NAZIRA) Reading and reciting (QIRAH), Memorization (HIFT) and Learning the meaning of some selected Suras through transiation in the national language. Those who are expected to memorize th whole of the Quran in the first three years should devote 80% of the time to memorization and 20% to reading and writing the national language, elementary lessons in Arabic and Mathematics. Those who want to memorize in six year should attend simultaneously all courses 40 which the rest of the students are expected to follow. For memorizing the whole of the Quran special provision fir evening classes be made the rest of the students are expected to memorize at least the thirieth Pars of the Quran and other Suras such as Yaa- seen. Al Rahman, etc.
2. Diniyat: (including Tauhid and Fiqh). All basic rules and regulations be taught in graded courses and students be made to practise in schools.
3. History: should be learnt through stories culled from the Islamic past, the lives of the Prophets from Adam till Muhammad (Peace be on them). The content may be selected from the Quran Hadits, Sorat un Nabi and history of Muslim civilization.
The courses to be so graded that for the younger group it will take the form of stories or incidnts and situations whereas in the last two years they may be given in a continoues narrative form. The objective is to provide as Muslims and also to feel indirectly the continuity and importance of Deen or religion for human life.
4. Narratives and Poems: Written to instik in children sympathy for friends, neighbours and others, obedience to parents and eiders, reverence to Prophets, religious leades and pious men and women, sense of duty to Allah and mankind and sense of self -sacrifice for a good cause. these narratives may be taken mainly form Seerat and Hadits of the Prophet and the lives of eminent Muslims.
5. Geography: The objective is to make children consious of thieir relation to the centre of the Muslim world, Mecca and Madina, and also to lern about the physical world arroung them and its inhabitants. Thus, these lessons will generate in these students an awareness of the basic unity of Ummah and mankind and save them from being narrowly nation alistic, racial or com- munal. By the time a student finishes the primary stage he should also have some understanding of what is meant by the Muslim World and what is the relationship between that woeld and his own country. In the begining these lessons can be given through pictures or cards or puzzies and gradually through projects for which the teacher may provide guidelines and give them relevant hooks or chapters to read. Map readin g is another interesting arca for children. It satisfies their curiosity and gives them self confidence.
6. Mathematics: To be taught at first through games and puzzies and later on through sums. By the time a student finishes the Primary stage he should be able to handle algebraic symbols and geometric figures with confidence in addition to arithmetic numbers. The objective is to make students implicaty able to formulate and understand abstractions and be seeped into the area of symbols. It is good training for the mind so that they may move form the concrete to the abstract, form sense ex- perience to ideation and from matter-of-factness to symbolisa- tion. It makes them prepare for as much better understanding of how the Universe which appears to be concrete and matter of fact is actually ayatullah signs of God-8 symbol of relity.
7. Arabic: For the Arab world Arabic is the mother tongue but for the rest of the world Arabic should be taught as a second language form early chidhood. Graded courses for non Arab childran have to be scientifically framed with the help of applied linguistics. The objectives is to give the children language so that sutdents alter completion of Primary education may be able to follow Quranic Arabic without much difficulty.
8. Nature Study and Elemetary Science: The objective is to make children aware of the beauty, mystery, glory and rich- ness of this created world so that an awareness of the grandeur and wisdom of Allah gets implanted in the hearts of children and they begin to understand the basic principles of science and make simple experiments and know how to use simple mechanical objects of day to day life.
SECUNDARYDevelpoing an understanding of faith and motivating for its application shall remain the objective of the curriculum at secondary stage. As this is the most crucial phase of a man's emotive and intellectual growth when doubt and questioning assail the soul, children are prone to listen to temptations and fall prey to waswasa in the form of sensations, false ideas, half-truthe A more rational understanding of Islam and a growing love for the Prophet (Peace be on him) is necessary to countercat the onslaughts of secularist and anti-Islamic ideas.
It is possible to do so if subjects are so designed and objectives of teaching them s0 clearly stated that understanding of Islam becomes the core of the curriculum. At the higher Secondary stage a wider under- standing is necessary because the mental growth demands a wider perspective in time as well as in space.
The studient should have an understanding of the basic relations between knowledge and virtue. knowledge and action. knowledge and power, knowledge and wealth, knowlede and social environment, knowlwdge and national development etc. The other objective is to refine their emotive urges by giving them imaginative experience through courses in literature and Islamic arts and architecture, sharpen their intellectual perception through courses in mathematics, natural sciences, and fulfil their communicative urges through courses in languages and social studies.
Throughout the Secondary stage there shall be compul sory courses in the following subjects:
- Quran: Recitation, memorization and interpretation Hadits : Study of Hadits chosen according to the age and ability of students and their relevance to the pe riod of mental emotive and intellectual development adn social and religious needs.
- Seerah and History of Islam:
- Fiqh
- Arabic, Mother tongue/National Language and one European language.
- Mathematics:
- One of the natural sciences. For the first three years addition to the above.
- Geography: To bring into their perspective World Geography both physical and cultural with special reference to the students own country.
- History and Civisc: History of Islam and of students own respective countries with special emphasis on Muslim contribution to their civilization and culture.
UNIVERSITY
Curricula at the tertiary stage must rest on the foundational stage (Primary/Secondary) with the three following goals:
(a) to inculude a deeper understanding of Islam and the Muslim Society in order to enable students to be prepared to serve the cause of Islam throughout their lives;
(b) to impart specialised knowledge in any of the bran- ches in Group I or Group II, to be chosen by the students themselves after consultation with Director of studies
(c) to ensure a balanced growth of the students persons lity through common courses in different branche of knowledge which then shall become courses in ge neral Islamic education compulsory for all students at the university level. General Islamic Education courses should consist of the followong:
- Two courses from Group I of which one shall be Arabic language, and the other either Islamic Culture and Civilization or History of Islamic Thought and Ideas.
- Two courses from Acquired knowledge, of which one shall be Islamic Philosophy of Science and lear- ning and the other, either Islamic Arts and Archi- tecture or one of the following tought from the Islamic point of view History Economics, Sociology.