The workshop was organized by The Media Foundation (TMF), a non-profit organization, for capacity building of the madrasa teachers and students in human rights and civic education in three districts of southern Punjab: Multan, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalpur.
Muhammad Siddique believes that the course, comprising lessons on human rights and civic education, is very beneficial for students and it must be declared a compulsory subject for all madrasa students. He wants all madrasa teachers to attend such workshops, to be aware of the importance of teaching human rights and civic education.
Filling in the feedback sheet, the teacher desires the TMF to conduct another workshop in Bahawalpur, so that all other madrasa teachers and students can benefit from it. He believes that the madrasa teachers in his district will show keen interest in the workshop and it will prove to be a great success there.
Muhammad Javed Iqbal is another madrasa teacher from southern Punjab. He is also very satisfied with his experience at the workshop. He finds the course on human rights and civic education, prepared for the students, beneficial for them to a great extent. However, he says that some issues, which the ulema of different schools of thought find controversial, should be discussed and explained sensibly and logically to the students and teachers’ and ulema’s opinions on such issues should be printed in the book as marginalia.
Noorul Saba is one of the female madrasa teachers from Multan, who attended the workshop. She terms her maiden experience of attending such a workshop “wonderful”. She believes that teachers’ capacity building regarding the new course would ultimately benefit the students at large.
The satisfaction shown by all the three teachers mentioned above is quite understandable. They are normally provided access to sources of knowledge and information relating to religion only. They are taught a specific curriculum and then made to teach that curriculum to their students. After spending a long period of time in a protected environment, they develop a specific viewpoint about religion and worldly affairs. And when they come across a new experience, logical and reliable, it surprises and captivates them.
It is a common perception that madrasa teachers and students have a distorted viewpoint of all subjects, other than the syllabus taught to them. Some of the madrasas allegedly serve as a recruiting ground for the violent extremist groups also. Students in such madrasas are exposed to narrow extremist ideologies that do not promote peace and tolerance. Keeping in view the on-ground situation and feeling the need for creating awareness among the madrasa teachers and students, The Media Foundation recently launched a programme for them.
Azmat Abbas, TMF executive director, says that southern Punjab has been selected for launching the project, being one of the most underdeveloped and neglected regions of the country. In an exclusive talk with Cutting Edge in Lahore recently, he said that the madrasa curriculum is not controlled by the government, but by a board or wafaq with which the madrasa is registered. Therefore, the syllabus taught at madrasas usually doesn’t cover various topics including human rights and civic education. There are five major governing bodies or wafaqs of madrasas in Pakistan: Tanzim-ul-Madaras (Barelwi), Wafaqul Madaras (Deobandi), Wafaqul Madaras (Shia), Wafaqul Madaras (Ahle Hadith) and Rabitaul Madaras (Jamaat-e-Islami).
The executive director says that the TMF launched the programme, in consultation with Umeed Jawan – a non-governmental organisation, for building the capacity of madrasa teachers and training 600 students (aged 16-26) in human rights and civic education. The first batch selected for the training and capacity building consisted of 24 teachers, 500 male and 100 female students.
Mr. Abbas says that the memoranda of understanding were signed with the selected 14 madrasas, belonging to all five wafaqs or boards, in Multan, Bahawalpur and Muzaffargarh. To ascertain the level of knowledge of selected teachers and students about human rights and civic education, a survey-based research study was conducted in these madrasas (10 for males and four for females, with four in Bahawalpur, seven in Multan, and three in Muzaffargarh).
The study results showed that an overwhelmingly large number, 90% of the respondents (madrasa teachers and students), cannot define basic concepts such as “human right” or “human dignity” and most have never heard of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the most comprehensive rights agreement in international law. 38 per cent respondents have never learnt about human rights and civic education in their classes, and 32% replied that human rights and civic education were not taught in their madrasas. 25 per cent of respondents didn’t know if they are being offered a civic education course in their madrasas and 16% partially disagree that there are sufficient resources in their madrasas.
According to the findings, 67% of respondents have never been engaged in a school-based human rights education project as an extension of the curriculum, and 62% have never heard about Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Only 25% could answer correctly that the Universal Declaration was created by the UN. Also, 53% believe that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Islamic approach are inherently different to human rights.
The study says that 52% of respondents believe that human rights are a Western concept and not Islamic in nature, and 40% don’t believe that human rights are protected by the Constitution of Pakistan. Also, 48% don’t believe that the Constitution of Pakistan is Islamic in essence, 42% believe that human rights is not a secular concept, while 37% respondents don’t believe that the right to life is protected in Islam and international laws.
Interestingly, but regrettably, 57% of respondents replied that the rights of a Muslim are superior to those of a non-Muslim, and 47% believe that women and men are not equal citizens of Pakistan. Also, 42% assume that women and men do not have equal rights in Islam, and 62% believe that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are tools of Western thought and not meant for public service.
The study also illustrates the encouraging trend that 65% of the respondents strongly agree that they should learn more about human rights and civic education in their classes. Also, 76% respondents strongly agree that their madrasa needs to provide more opportunities to talk about human rights and civic education.
Mr. Abbas says that the TMF, encouraged by the urge among the madrasa teachers and students for learning more about human rights and civic education, launched the project. In the light of the survey findings and summary of statistics, the curriculum of human rights and civic education was designed and written by experts, adds Mr. Abbas
The TMF executive director says that in the first phase, training sessions of madrasa teachers were conducted on January 26, 2015, to January 30, 2015, in Multan. The participants were teachers from 14 madrasas and the purpose behind the training sessions was to prepare them to further train and educate students in human rights and civic education in their respective madrasas. Besides religious scholars, senior faculty members from Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, were also invited to conduct training sessions.
In the second phase, 600 students were selected from 14 madrasas to attend training sessions on human rights and civic education, conducted by their own teachers, who had already attended the training sessions.
Mr. Abbas says that a post-training study was also conducted to evaluate the effects of the training sessions. The results showed a major shift in knowledge and thinking of the respondents as around 85% of the respondents somehow defined the basic concepts of human rights and civic education correctly.
Looking at the results one by one in comparison to the pre-training survey results gives a clear idea about the effectiveness of the training intervention, as 80% of the respondents now say that they have learned about human rights and civic education in their classes.
Mr. Abbas says that the results produced by the short-term, limited project stress the need for teaching human rights and civic education in all madrasas on a permanent basis.
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