August 29, 2008 pg 17
Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Executive Director of the Islamic Centre for Muslim Women and Girl Child Education (ICMWGE), Hajia Fatimatu Bintu Habib Umar, has stressed the need for Muslims to invest in the education of their children, especially the girl child.
Educating the children, she said, was the greatest legacy they could leave for their children.
Hajia Fatimatu was speaking at the 20th anniversary celebration of the ICMWGE and Fatimatu Bintu Rasul International Islamic School (FBRIIS) in Accra at the weekend.
The school, which started with 40 pupils, now has 300 pupils. The school will be admitting pupils to the junior high school class for the first time this year. Female adults attend evening classes.
Hajia Fatimatu said education should not be restricted to males since females could equally be trained to excel in every field of endeavour.
She said the Islamic school was therefore set up to mainly educate children, especially the girl child.
She said the school also gave opportunity to adults to attend evening classes to seek knowledge in English and Arabic.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Sheikh I. C. Quaye, who was the guest of honour, stressed the need for parents to give priority to the education of their children.
He said the government was committed to giving Ghanaians easy access to eduation.
The former running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof John Evans Atta Mills, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, said in this era of technological advancement, those without education would be left behind.
That, he said, put much burden on the youth to aspire for advanced knowledge to be able to compete favourably on the job market.
The National Imam of the Ahlussunna Wal Jama’a, Sheikh Umar Ibrahim Imam, who chaired the function, expressed happiness that more and more Muslims were appreciating the value of secular education, and urged more Muslims to send their children to school.
In another development, the former Headmistress of Holy Child Senior School in Cape Coast, Mrs Alice Marie Agyeman, has stressed the need for parents to commit resources to support the education of their children, reports SHIRLEY ASIEDU-ADDO, ELMINA.
She indicated that as the government strived to improve facilities to improve enrolment and retain more children in schools it was important that parents played their roles in ensuring that their children had educational materials needed for effective academic work.
Mrs Agyeman was addressing graduates of the Poised for Success Summer Camp for pupils of Okyeso Catholic School at Duakor, near Cape Coast.
The camp, organised by Ms Ria Pollingwood, an African American student who visited the country as a tourist a few years ago and later returned to contribute to improve educational standards.
She has, in collaboration with the School’s Management Committee (SMC) and the school authorities’ initiated yearly vacation camps for the final year students and selected students from junior high schools during which the students are given the needed attention and instruction in English and Mathematics.
During the camps a conducive environment is created for the students to learn without being distracted. They were not allowed to receive visitors and were provided with square meals.
The young Entrepreneurship Competition is also another component of the camp, and it is used to educate the children to enable them to develop business plans. A competition is then held among the campers to select and fund the top three business plans.
The students are also educated on safe sex habits.
Mrs Agyeman advised the children to learn hard to achieve the goals they have set for themselves.
Ms Charity Foli, Headmistress of the school, said due to financial problems only about three students who passed the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) three years ago were able to go to secondary school.
Richard Kechi, a beneficiary of the camp, said the camp had helped him to build his self confidence.
Ms Pollingwood said she was delighted to have contributed to changing their lives, and urged parents and teachers to support the programme to make it a success.
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Muslim Youths
Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools.
The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60.
Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim culture--the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture.
Iftikhar Ahmad
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
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