If you are a Muslim parent concerned about your child's well being in this world and the next, a contentious issue to be decided in the upcoming provincial elections concerns you. The gist of the issue is: Should the Ontario government fund faith-based schooling as it funds catholic schooling with the public tax dollars.
The present political leadership of Ontario believes that it is justified to support the education of catholic students, numbering 600,000 in the province, but not 53,000 students mostly of Jewish, Hindu and Muslim backgrounds. A fear mongering campaign is being waged to ensure the status quo which the UN brands as discriminatory towards other religions.
As Muslims, however, this discriminatory policy is not what troubles parents the most. It is the fact that the children, their prime possessions, are being influenced by a school culture and education that promotes values in clash with those of the faith professed by the parents. When it is said that the Canadian system of education is second only to Finland's, one is being fair to ask: Who is to judge?
From the Muslim perspective child education ('ilm) is about nurturing values in a child's personality as enjoined by the one we believe to be the Creator of humanity. A child devoid of Islamic spirit is a child of poverty - no matter how many math formulas, correct word spellings, nature facts or historical dates clutter his head. An ideal learning environment holds central to it a faith-based purpose of human existence on earth: in our case, to live life in accordance with the model left by the Prophet (SAW). Any other system of education that does not infuse a faith-based value system and ideals, or worse, promotes those of the jahiliyyah, is unacceptable. I talk of values such as love for God and His Prophet, charity, modesty, sacrifice, truthfulness, integrity and a good will towards humanity as defined by our faith tradition. All prophets were sent to teach higher values as commanded by God. Did the Prophet (SAW) not say: innama bu'ith-tu mu'allima (I have been sent only as a teacher)?
How can an observant Muslim feel comfortable with his child's school environment that deliberately leaves God out the door; defines life success in terms of dollars and cents; endorses hedonism, immodesty, and consumerism; promotes disrespect of educators, parents and fellow students; shares/encourages methods of sexual 'protection' over sexual abstinence; promotes intimate mixing of males and females and teaches homosexuality as a natural and healthy way of life? At worst, there is rampant physical and sexual bullying, racism, drug use, armed violence and murder occurring in places we send our children to with expectations to become refined human beings. One of the high schools I attended in my youth had an on-duty police officer on all of its three floors. There is talk now of having police presence inside the classrooms of some schools as a last resort to ensure discipline and safety.
Then there are the philosophical issues. Cultural relativity and situational ethics taint the underlying spirit of the public school curricula. Let us remember that the first revelation of the Quran instructs Muslims to 'read in the name of your God that created' not in the name of secular humanism or popular socialism or whatever.
Unfortunately the detractors draw the most horrific picture as the consequence of funding faith-based schools by citing its harm to the Canadian identity and social cohesion. Others say it would 'Balkanize' our schools into homogenous enclaves. In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that faith-based school funding in Manitoba, New Foundland, Alberta and Quebec has led towards the formation of segregated communities. Student graduates from faith-based schools in other provinces proceed to universities and colleges and seek professional careers and lead normal lives just like others. And even though the presently attending students of faith-based schools are a growing reality they still constitute a tiny minority of all school-going students in Canada and in all likelihood will not in any way maleffect public schools. It may even be argued that public schooling might improve as a result of competition with greater parental choice on where they'd want to send their kids. Quite frankly, Mr. McGuinty, we find you self-contradicting when you deem public funding for faith-based schools as "taking us backwards" but then seemingly defend catholic school funding by giving a historical justification in your statement: "that's the system we've inherited" - just as when you cite the majority of Ontarians as unsupportive of public funding for faith-based schools and at the same time call it "a defining issue" in the upcoming elections.
Yet, to be fair, groundwork must be done before the government decides to blindly hand out expense vouchers to parents. We suggest that the government take the steps to formulate an Islamic school board as a regulatory body overlooking the quality of all Islamic schools under its jurisdiction. If we can have 37 Catholic school boards currently functioning in the province we can certainly use one Islamic school Board to cater to the phenomenon of rapidly mushrooming Islamic schools by the year. The funding should be tied not only to the membership of the Board but also to a sustained record of achievement according to a defined criteria set by the Board that should represent the interests of parents, teachers and the administration across the province at an equilibrium. The board should evolve into existence through an electoral process with proper checks and balances.
The reasons why Islamic schools are in a state of chaos right now is partly due to the absence of a centrally governing body, such as a Board, whose primary job is to provide direction and guidance to an individual school and partly because most schools are running purely as private businesses whose 'owners' see little incentive for change. We all know too well of Islamic schools with boastful names that follow unethical practices in their administration and education. In some places, teachers are poorly paid, or none at all, or fired at whim or appointed without merit; at others, we find parents as either completely uninvolved in the child's education process or demand to sit inside the classroom at whim in order to evaluate the teacher. There is no defined Islamic curriculum worthy of mention applied uniformly across all schools. There are Islamic schools that lack vision for why they exist - the same goes for some principals! I have come to know incidents of corporal punishment, unsanitary/unsafe conditions, and inappropriate and unruly behavior such as shouting and swearing inside some of the more well known Islamic schools.
An Islamic schools Board would ensure that in order to qualify for future funding a school would have to fulfill a criteria defined by an impartial body of elected Board members from the community. The schools would not only have to follow Ontario curriculum guidelines but Islamic curriculum guidelines according to each grade as defined by the Board as well. The hired staff would have to be professionally accredited and exhibit model behavior in terms of teaching methodologies as well as character and ethics. Only schools that fulfill the devised criteria would be granted public funding. The emphasis would be on raising the quality of institutions not their numbers. It is only when we proceed with our support for public funding for our schools with a clear vision in mind would it turn out as a boon for our community as it would for our nation.
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