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Madrasas Slowly Warm to Computers
Changing the mindset of jihad, one by one
Stung by their reputation as places of backwardness and militancy, Pakistan’s madrasas -- traditional schools where Islam is taught in great detail -- are teaching computer and Web literacy as a way to gain respectability. There are about 12,000 madrasas in Pakistan, with more than 1.5 million students enrolled. Most of the students are too poor to afford a modern education. So boys between 8 and 15 years old attend these schools where they spend several hours a day memorizing the verses of the Koran. Older students undergo a difficult eight-year course that interprets the holy book. Jamia Naimia in Lahore is one of those madrasas. Subjects like math, English and general sciences are not taught here. But the school has a computer science department that teaches Windows applications, Web design and Basic. The computer room with 26 PCs -- most of them upgraded to Pentium 4 last year -- is in sharp contrast to the surrounding simplicity of the school, where students usually sit on the floor to learn.

The students seem to like the machines; in fact, some of the students are inspired by them. Fifteen-year-old Amjad Shahzad said he wants to become a software engineer. His friends in the room talked about similar professions. "We have computers, not terrorists," said Naimia’s principal, Sarfraz Naeemi. "Anyone can go in and have a look. We have nothing to hide." But why not teach math and science, along with computer literacy? "Islamic studies is a vast subject in itself," Naeemi said. "How will the students find time for other things? Computers are important to their future. That’s why we decided to teach them computers. And we decided that on our own. We didn’t do it because Musharraf asked us to change."
The kid wants to become a software engineer with no math?
President Pervez Musharraf, faced with growing international concerns over what is taught in the madrasas -- especially the interpretations of the word "jihad" -- appeared on state television last year and asked the traditional schools to change. He even unraveled a plan called the Madrasa Ordinance with a budget of over $115 million, which is trying to lure the schools into making curriculum changes and stepping into modern times. "But an overwhelming majority of madrasas have resisted change," said Shahzad Qaiser, a former secretary of education for the state of Punjab and a civil servant who today is a faculty adviser for a research group that studies Madrasa education. "The academics in the madrasas feel that Western influence will reduce their stranglehold over a form of education that they have ruled for years," he said. "Also, they do not want to appear as though they have succumbed to pressure from America, the country they believe is influencing President Musharraf."

The precise number of madrasas that have included computers in their curriculum is not clear, but they are a very small portion. They are chiefly in large cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. "These madrasas have been forced by the government to appear modern," said Mohammed Riaz Durrani, an Islamic academic. "The police have been raiding madrasas on the pretext of searching for militants. Some madrasas don’t want to be harassed. So they are toeing the government line of modernizing. What better way to do it than say you are teaching computers?"
MDRS105: Controlling the Djinn that Runs Your Computer (3SH)
Tahir Hameed Tanoli, another academic who has written a doctoral thesis on the psychology of Muslims, disagrees. "First, it’s a misconception that computer education comes in conflict with madrasa education," he said. "Madrasas are genuinely beginning to see the usefulness of computer education. So it’s not a cosmetic change." While madrasa students -- fascinated by computers and the Internet -- are beginning to dream of modern professions, the school managers say Islamic education will remain the only priority. In April, Jamia Ashrafia, a madrasa in Lahore with over 1,500 students (including girls), got a consignment of 50 computers for a total of 150 at the school. This academic year the school will see the introduction of math and science. "There will be no compromise on the content of Islamic education," Ashrafia’s principal, S.M. Rafia, said. "If we make too many drastic changes too often, it will be an admission that something was wrong. And we would like to believe that nothing was ever wrong with the madrasas."
Show me a software engineer who's never had any math and I'll show you a drag on the profession...

Posted by: Sherry 2004-04-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=31551