Issues and problems of Muslim Education
The one great factor responsible of the fall of Muslims in India was their neglect of the right type of education. We have to make the word "right type". It is not that they remained uneducated all through, but they failed to keep pace with the trend of advance else where in the realm of education. They failed to understand that knowledge should not remain knowledge as such, but it should be transformed into skill, wisdom modern terms is technology, and technology in its turn should integrate with culture, They failed to observe that knowledge through skill, wisdom and understanding bestows on man the power to move towards his destiny which is the quest for higher objectives of life. They forgot the point that unapplied knowledge is knowledge shorn of all meaning and hence it is no knowledge at all. Education is the activity of reorganizing and reconstructing the experience of new meaning and new direction for the experience of man all of which are deeds and actions which needed serious work, and the Muslims did not launch on this course until the times of Sir Syed.
As long as Muslims were in power until mid-eighteenth century in India, the neglect of higher education did not have much impact but with the advent of the colonials the picture was enormously changed. For more than a century the Muslims were locked in a bitter fight against the colonials, every time to be beaten hollow. Their resistance was stir, but the onslaught from the west was far beyond their power, ability and energy. In the process of struggle they lost every thing; they lost land because of the land settlement of the British; they lost jobs because of the change in the administration: they lost the privilege of their language, literature and culture, because of the imposition of western language, Literature and culture. Despondency touched the nadir, until small relief came to them when Sir Syed attempted to avert the catastrophes incurring the displeasure of his own community.
Therefore, the main issue that is impeding the progress of Muslim education is the historical factor. We have not forgotten the glory of the past. We think we are still Nawabs. It is good to know the past , but bad to live in the past. Rivers flow, time passed, nothing is constant, but we do not wish to change. It is true we had a glorious past, but what are we now? We have to place our history in the correct perspective, and not mix it with current politics.
The third issue acting as the stumbling block in our progress is our psychology. It is the outcome of our politics and history which makes us think that we could survive even without education. Wrong notions and wrong psychology have gone into the head of an average Muslim who equates graduation with govemment job. He would say it is not an end-all and be-all in life to be a clerk in some office. He would argue why should my child struggle for twenty years to be a petty teacher or clerk in some distant place away from the family? Why should one wait that long when even the job is not guaranteed in this competitive world? Why should he not take to business or trade I am doing and start helping the family ? Linking jobs with degrees and the resulting inhibitions thereof has been a crucial problem of ours.
Fourthly, general apathy is hitting hard the Muslims who are finding it extremely difficult to meet the demands of modern educations. To secure admission into Medical or Engineering or into institutes of higher learning is a very serious problem unless the boy comes on merit and knowing the calibre of the Muslim boys, it is difficult to find them in the merit list, Neither the parents are keen to take interest in his education nor is he industrious and intelligence enough to come up, nor are the facilities, environment and guidance helpful to him to compete with others. Consequently, the backwardness of the Muslims increases year by year. What Sir Syed said a century ago still holds good that a Hindu doing coolly work educates his child but to a Muslim nothing is in from the expenses of a table, with the result that even children of good families remain uneducated.
Lastly, the pattern of system of education that prevails is also not helpful to the Muslims. After the partition of the Country, they are confronted with very serious problems. The medium of instruction has caused them great worry. Although the government says that all primary education should be in the mother tongue of the child, there are not enough Urdu Primary schools to meet the growing demand of the increasing population. Medium of instruction is either English which is an international language or Hindi which is the national language or regional language which are over fifteen in the country. Since Urdu happens to be the mother tongue of Muslims all over India except in two or three states, their children are finding it very difficult to cope with those whose mother tongue is the regional language. English Schools or public schools have been the centres for the children of the elite. Our masses cannot afford to send them there. Wherever Urdu schools are there, they are not that good, either they are too few in number or too poor in quality. The teachers appointed their are not motivated.