What are the stages of Islamic education?

MAYWE

7 years ago

STAGES OF LEARNING IN ISLAMIC
EDUCATION
Islamic Education in the Qur’anic schools,
otherwise known as Informal Education, is
carried out in stages. These stages
according to Dambo (1994), are the early
childhood or Nursery stage called
Makarantan Yara, the elementary state
(tittibiri) and Adult Education stage.
Varied curricular activities are daily being
operated in each of the stages, which
commensurate to the age, ability and
interest levels peculiar to the students.
NURSERY OR EARLY CHILDHOOD
STAGE (MAKARANTAR YARA)
This stage consists of children of tender
age of say between three to five who
normally follow their brothers and sisters
to school. These are grouped together in
one corner of the circle and instructed
orally to recite and commit to memory
shorter chapters (surahs) of the Qur’an
and other Islamic rituals of purification,
ablution, prayer and ethics. “The only
pleasure they (children) derive from the
system at this stage lies in the choral
recitations which often follow a sing-song
pattern. The pupils seem to enjoy reciting
these verses to themselves in their
homes and at play”. (Fafunwa, 1974.)
The instructional technique at this stage
is such that the teacher recites the
shorter surahs to the pupils and the pupils
in turn repeat after him. This routine is
repeated several times until the teacher
is fully convinced that his pupils have
mastered the correct pronunciation. The
pupils are then allowed to retire and
continue reciting these ayats (verses) on
their own until they have been thoroughly
memorized before proceeding to the next
set of ayats. This way, the pupils progress
in their studies before entering the next
stage of learning.
THE ELEMENTARY STAGE (TITTIBIRI):
This consists of pupils of about five (5) to
fourteen years old. At this stage, the
pupils are introduced to Arabic alphabets
just as children in the formal type of
Education are introduced to A, B, C, and D.
They first learn the consonants (Babbaku)
without vowels, and after learning all the
consonants, which are twenty-eight in
number, they learn each of the consonants
with vowels (wasulla) called Farfaru. The
vowels in Arabic are five (5). They
areFat’ha, Kasra, Damma, Sukun, and
Tashdid, and they are used in forming
words. Learning ofBabbaku and Farfaru in
Qur’anic Education are indispensable. It is
very necessary in ensuring fluency in the
proper pronunciation of Arabic letters
from their roots and proficiency in word
articulation pertinent in realizing and
appreciating the correct interpretation of
the Qur’an, its melody and unique
features.
This stage is often regarded as the most
primary to the Educational progress of
pupils later in life. That is why muslim
parents make sure that their children are
well grounded with the requirements of
this stage.After the pupils have learnt
these, the teacher will start writing on
their wooden board, the slate (allo), short
verse and surah for them to learn and
commit to memory. As the pupil
progresses in this stage, he is gradually
introduced to the art of writing, which
develops his writing skills. In this, the
teacher or other senior students in the
school continuously guidehim. After
writing, he now goes to the Malam or his
representative to read the written
portion in a process called Darsu or
Biyawa. The teacher reads and the pupils
repeat after him until he is satisfied that
the pupils are reading correctly as is
expected. This continues until the artof
writing is perfected after which the pupil
is now allowed by the Mallam to be reading
from pages of the Qur’an directly. He
reads and observes some of the rules of
Tajwid (The Scienceof the recitation of
the Holy Qur’an) unconsciously, until he
completes learning the whole Qur’an. You
should at this juncture note that not all
the students would complete this stage of
learning. Some would withdraw and take
on some trade to earn a living, and others,
especially girls will be withdrawn by their
parents for marriage. Some of course
would continue depending on their
husbands. This stage concludes what may
be called the elementary education.
Whatever the child may learn after this
stage is considered within the scope of
Adult Education in which specialization
features most.
In addition to these, further instructions
on Islamic rituals are given, and in most
cases, the teacher demonstrates how
these rituals are performed. Hence,
direct acquisition of the rites of ablution,
tayammum, prayer and other rituals are
issued at this stage, although much of it
are to be later learnt at the next stage.
ADULT EDUCATION STAGE
“Pupils in this stage are mostly
adolescents who in most cases have
completed the reading ofAl-Qur’an at
least once and also know some basic
principles of Islam” (Fafunwa, 1974). The
curriculum of this stage is diversified and
structured to reflect areas students
wish to specialize in. He first starts
learning what may be called general
studies. The meaning of what he learnt
and committed to memory before is now
taught to him in the process
calledTarjama and exegesis (Tafsir). He is
equally introduced to the tradition of the
prophet (S.A.W) called Hadith being the
most comprehensive details of the
content of the Qur’an, which he learnt
during his elementary level of studies.
Other courses include Arabic grammar
and its components i.e. as-sarf
(grammatical inflexions) an-nahw (syntax)
al-mantiq (logic), al-ma’ni wal bayan
(rhetoric and versification) and
Ishiriniyat (poetry). Islamic
jurisprudence(fiqh), al-aqaid (theology),
Ilmul usul (rules and principles of the
interpretation of laws), al-Jabr wal
muqabalah (algebra) and al hisab were
equally taught.
Normally as is the case the student
spends much of his time learning these
subjects from different teachers as no
one teacher specializes in all these areas.
Alternatively, different teachers teach
the different subjects where they are
available. Having learnt these different
subjects, the student now chooses a
subject for specialization. In the olden
days, he proceeds to a university of
international repute to continue with his
studies there. Universities of al-Az’har,
Timbuktu, Sankore and Jenne used to and
still serve as international centres of
learning. With increased understanding
and difficulties in getting access to these
institutions nowadays, renown Islamic
scholars, competent enough to teach
these areas do the job.