Registration is a must

THE madressah registration drive is not going to be as easy as previously thought, going by what happened in Islamabad on Monday. Repudiating the assurances earlier given by its secretary-general, the Wafaqul Madaris Arabia Pakistan (Deoband) has refused to have its madressahs registered. The Wafaq (federation) runs over 8,000 madressahs and is one of the five boards which operate seminaries. Earlier, Qari Hanif Jalandhry, its secretary-general, had assured the government that the Wafaq had agreed to registration as required by the amended law. On Monday, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who attended the Wafaq’s meeting, said Qari Hanif had acted without the board’s approval. Qari Hanif, however, insists that he had cleared the issue with Maulana Fazlur Rahman before going public on the matter. On Monday, Maulana Fazlur Rahman declared categorically that he would not agree to the registration of madressahs and the deportation of foreign students. The maulana, who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, levelled serious allegations against the government and threatened MMA parliamentarians’ resignation from the federal and provincial assemblies. A crisis seems to be brewing on both counts.

It is not clear what harm will come to the madressahs if they get themselves registered. After all, the madressahs impart education, which the world over is an open process of public instruction. The refusal to register will give rise to unnecessary misgivings about the reasons for the refusal. As we have said repeatedly in these columns, madressahs have for centuries performed a useful role in South Asia by producing qualified imams for the community. They had nothing to do with violence and produced some outstanding scholars of Islam. However, during the US-led ‘jihad’ against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, the madressahs underwent a radical transformation in Pakistan. Helped by the CIA’s overt and covert aid, the madressahs became centres of training and recruitment for anti-Soviet jihadis. The tragedy was that even after the Soviet withdrawal, a large number of madressahs continued to produce militants, because some religious parties found it convenient to have armed militias for domestic purposes. During the weak political governments (1988-199) especially, the religious parties became a government within a government. At times, these parties ran their own Kashmir and Afghan policies, bypassing Islamabad, and did enormous damage to Pakistan’s image aboard.

The amendment to the Societies’ Act stipulates nothing out of the ordinary. While we do not support wholesale expulsion of all foreign students, we do believe that the madressah registration is an essential requirement, and the ulema have no understandable reasons to oppose it. Notwithstanding the government’s own mishandling of the problem — the provocative way of raiding madressahs and the police search for hate material there — the ulema should defuse the situation by agreeing to registration. This way they will prove that they have nothing to hide, thus improving their image at home and abroad. As for foreign students, a better way would to be to handle the issue on a case by case basis. Foreign students were coming to madressahs in South Asia even during the raj. Most of those who come — mostly from South-East Asia and Africa — stick to the religious course and do not indulge in politics. To expel them would be unfair. The Wafaq can help in this screening and save those students who are in Pakistan for the purpose of acquiring religious education from deportation.

Lopsided priorities

A SENATE subcommittee has stressed the need for improving the quality of education by establishing high calibre universities. This observation was made during the subcommittee’s meeting to discuss the criteria for establishing private universities. One would not question the government’s good intentions. But can the standard of higher education be improved if the standard of school education remains as low as it is today? If by and large the students who enter the universities have studied in schools which fail to impart proper knowledge to them and to teach them communication and analytical skills, they will bring down the standards of the institutions of higher learning. It is surprising that this basic fact has escaped the attention of our educationists. Policymaking has become fragmented ostensibly for greater efficiency. With no coordination between the various sub-sectors, each goes its own way and what we have is a lopsided education system, with no intrinsic balance between higher education and primary education.

It hardly needs to be emphasized that the upgrading of education standards has to be a holistic and comprehensive process. If universities are being improved, the schools should also have an improved process of teaching and learning. This also means that a proportionately adequate budget should be provided for the schools. The government can’t starve the school sector of funds and expect it to raise its standards. After all, the quality of school education cannot be improved without proper training of teachers, good textbooks and a physical infrastructure that meets the basic needs of students. Regrettably, the government has gradually been disengaging itself from its educational responsibilities and allowing the private sector to fill the gap. Today 42 per cent of the primary enrollments are in private schools, not all of which can boast of even a modestly good standard. Thus the government is losing control over primary education institutions as a result of its skewed policies. How does it then hope to raise standards in our universities?

Hockey win

THE Pakistan hockey team needs to be congratulated for winning a major tournament after a very long time. The men in green defeated the highly-rated, and higher-ranked Olympic champions, Australian, in the final of an elite eight-nation tournament in the Dutch city of Amstelveen over the weekend. The world’s top eight teams, including World Cup 2002 winner Germany and 2004 Champion’s Trophy winner Spain, were participating in the tournament. Pakistan remained unbeaten in the group stage and this included a 5-0 thrashing of Germany. The final against favourites Australia was an exciting and suspenseful affair with Pakistan coming from behind twice to eventually win the match and the tournament. The fact that the Pakistan team managed to do this without big names like penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas is perhaps even more laudable and could prove to be a good omen for the future because a win like this can provide the much-needed will and confidence for an enduring turn around for the team.

Unlike in recent years, when Pakistan had done well in the initial stages of a tournament only to disappoint us towards the end, this time round the team showed great consistency and resilience in rebounding and making good whenever it was in the deficit. It is this tenacity and fighting spirit which had been lacking in the team’s performances in recent years and one hopes that this win will change all that by providing the young team the belief and conviction that it can win when and where it matters most. The tournament triumph might just be the shot in the arm the country’s national game (whose national association is currently mired in an illegal immigration scandal) desperately needs and should be used to prepare for the Champion’s Trophy to be held in November this year and the World Cup in 2006.