Islamic Education is declining due to. - Alhaji Tamimu

Wa, May 22, GNA - Alhaji Zaidu Tamimu, an Administrator at the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, has observed that Islamic education h as been declining since the conversion of Muslim Quranic Schools into English/Arabic Schools by the government in 1973. He expressed regret that with the introduction of the English/Arabic Schools more attention was being placed on the teaching of English langua ge to the detriment of Arabic.

He bemoaned the current trend and said it had the tendency of giving space for indiscipline to creep into the Islamic Educational system if ca re was not taken.

Alhaji Zaidu made the observation at a capacity building workshop organised for stakeholders of the Islamic Education Unit in Wa on Saturda y. He explained that the Muslim Quranic Schools were established to instill in the youth the Muslim principles of education and warned that a ny practice contrary to that would be defeating that purpose and should be discouraged.

The workshop was on the theme: "Promoting Quality Education in Islam ic Schools: The Role of Stakeholders" and was aimed at providing the requisi te training for managers of Islamic schools to enhance quality education. The Educational Development Fund for Muslim Youth (EDUFUND) in collaboration with the Islamic Education Unit and the Wa Muslim Community sponsored the forum that was attended by headmasters, members of Parent Teacher Associations and proprietors of Islamic Schools in the region. The participants were taken through topics such as "The role of the headmaster in effective school management and administration", "The need for mobilizing resources and financial accountability", "Effective collaborat ion between headmasters, PTAs and Proprietors for school development" as well as "Re-enforcing the Islamic culture in the schools, the role of stakeholder s". Alhaji Nurideen A. Salih, Upper West Regional Manager of the Islamic Education Unit, noted that since the establishment of the Unit by the Ministry of Education, it had since engaged itself in the provision of educational facilities to complement government's effort to provide quali ty education for its people.

He said despite those wonderful interventions their effort had been thwarted by the lack of both secular and Arabic teachers in most of their schools especially those in the deprived communities.

"Our schools are now gradually ceasing to be English-Arabic Schools because of the lack of Arabic teachers", he emphasized. Mr Yakubu Duogu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive in a speech read on hi s behalf, commended the Islamic Education Unit for its role in enhancing quality education in the Municipality in particular and the region as a whole.

He announced that government through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) would by September this year complete the construction of six units classroom block each for the Wa Islamic Senior High School and the Ahmadiyya Senior High School.

The Fund would also support the construction of five classroom block s in some selected schools in the Municipality. Madam Scholastica Gyiele, Wa Municipal Education Director, called on the leadership of the Islamic Education Unit to organise more of such workshops to improve the capacity of their teachers.