Arabic colleges reform in Sri Lanka: Some reflection.

- By Dr SLM RIFAI: UK -

It has been reported that the postal service and Muslim cultural affair minister M. H.A Haleem has made a proposal to reform and upgrade Arabic colleges in Sri Lanka. It is undoubtedly a timely needed proposal. I hope that honourable Minister will take some concrete steps to reform Arabic colleges in Sri Lanka. It has been debated for a long time that Arabic colleges must be upgraded in Sri Lanka to meet increasing challenges that the Muslim community faces today. I think this proposal was made in the backdrop of recent incidents in Sri Lanka. Arabic colleges must be reformed not only in Sri Lanka, but also all over the world today. It is reported that there are more than10.000 Arabic colleges in Indian sub-continent alone. They produce thousands of Arabic college graduates. These graduates face tremendous challenges in this modern digital world. Many of them struggle to relate what they learn into modern world. Today, education has been revolutionised in this modern world. Teaching and learning have been revolutionised in their all dimensions. Today, rapid changes are taking place in education. It is reported that future job market and employment opportunities will be in one way or another connected to digital technology and AI. I mentioned this here to highlight that dramatic changes are taking place in this modern world.

Naturally, we all are influenced and affected by modern social changes in science and technology. Arabic college graduates will find it hard to relate what they learn in Arabic colleges if they do not update their knowledge with modern world. Dr Jassem Sultan argues that today in this modern digital world to call any Muslim jurist as a qualified jurist he must meet some conditions. He argues that the Muslim jurists must learn many modern sciences such as politics, economics, phycology, sociology, history, science, and many other areas of human sciences so that they could address the modern social issues that the Muslim community faces today. Otherwise, they would not be able to confront the modern challenges. So, learning all these sciences are prerequisites for the students of Islam to become jurists. He argues the science of the general philosophy of Islamic law is not yet, systematically developed to address the modern challenges. He argues that we cannot solve the modern social problems with classical solutions. The social problems of humanities are unique for this modern world. So, the solutions to the modern problems should be made through modern methods and modern mechanisms. Although some Arabic colleges have made some attempts to incorporate some modern sciences into Arabic college syllabi yet, those are minimal. Arabic college teaching pedagogies are outdated. Teaching resources and materials are outdated as well. There is no any staff training and postgraduate training opportunities for Arabic college teachers in Sri Lanka, we should not make any superficial reformation for sake of reform, but any meaningful Arabic college reformation must be done after some extensive research and evaluation. There are some solid researches and studies are being carried out in many parts of Muslim world today to upgrade Arabic colleges in the Arab and Muslim world. Some of these academic researches will be useful starting point for Sri Lankan Arabic colleges to make some solid reformation.

I would like to high light some of these areas where reformation is urgently needed.

Enrolment of students: It is reported that there are 300 hundred Arabic colleges in Sri Lanka today. All of them are self-funded by Muslim community, and charitable organisations; Locally or otherwise internationally. Students are not enrolled into these Arabic colleges in any systemic order through any vagarious evolution and examinations. Rather less capable and less able students are enrolled. Sometimes, from those who failed GCSE O/L examinations are enrolled into Arabic colleges. In the formative period of Islam, most clever children were devoted their time and life to learn Islam. That is why we have seen some brilliant brains in Islamic history, Ibn Khadun, Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali to name a few were some of greatest philosophers and historians in Islamic history. Even today their books are taught in western universities. and yet, today, less capable and less talented students are selected in Arabic colleges.so natural standard of Arabic and Islamic studies goes down.
Update Arabic college syllabi: There is no any uniformed Syllabus in Sri Lankan Arabic colleges. Most of these Arabic colleges have got outdated Arabic college syllabus. Today, rapid changes are taking place in all walks of life. There are rapid social changes take place in geopolitics, international development, international relations, politics, sociology, economics, finance, science, medicine, technology and other areas of human development. If these human developments are not included in Arabic college syllabi, the graduates of Arabic college would not be able to relate what they learn in classroom into practical life. Moreover, today so many modern Islamic sciences are taught in international Islamic universities such as legal philosophy of Islamic law, comparative religions, Islamic finance, Islamic banking, Islamic education, Islamic philosophy, Islamic psychology and so many other areas of Islamic studies. These areas are not included in our Arabic college syllabi. Many Arabic colleges in India, Pakistan are updating their syllabi. We do need to update them with new syllabi in Sri Lanka. All 300 hundred Arabic colleges must have some uniformed syllabi. Sri Lankan Arabic colleges must include a comparative religious study too in their syllabi so that our Arabic colleges will have in-depth knowledge on other religions in Sri Lanka. We are living in a multicultural society. So, we should know other people’s culture, customs, belief and way of life so that we could respect all when we interact with people of different culture and religions. Recently, we came to know some South East University Muslim undergraduates went on the top of some Buddhist relics. Why did not they do it? There is no point in blaming them, they are innocent students. They did not know what they did was wrong. They did not know that this was a holy place for Buddhists? So, this type of misunderstanding could take place in Sri Lanka. Unless we teach comparative religious studies in Sri Lanka, next generations will find it difficult to interact each other. So, Arabic colleges must include this comparative religious study in their syllabi. To be continued next week.