The Educational Challenges of the Muslim World

Educational backwardness is one of the biggest challenges facing the Muslim World today.
Education, learning and Intellectual attainments have been the elementary building blocks of the Islamic civilization since the days of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). The Muslim World must learn and educate itself in order to attain its due status and place in the global arena in the twenty-first century. All the 57 member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation suffer from academic and educational weaknesses of diverse and complex nature. Our schools, colleges and Universities have yet to develop enough to compete with the rest of the civilized world. The research culture in the Muslim societies, in general, is not at par with that of the rest of the educated and civilized world. Our annual production of quality books does not compare well with even the modestly developed world regions such as the Latin America, the Eastern Europe or the ASEAN region.
Science and technology are the basis of economic and developmental breakthroughs in the modern world. The quality of scientific education imparted in the Muslim World does not measure up even to the average international standards.
Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the IOT (Internet of Things) are the twenty-first century’s vital areas of academic and educational attainments. They are the immediate successors and counterparts of the late twentieth century scientific and technological breakthroughs in the computers and Bio-Technology. They are going to be the elementary requirements for attaining major develoomental successes in the twenty-first century.
Apart from a few exceptions, almost all of the 57 Muslim countries lag behind the rest of the developed and developing world in these latest areas of scientific and technological prowess.
The education systems of the Muslim World have certain fundamental structural and qualitative problems.
Schools lie at the base of the educational and academic pyramids in any education system. The Universities and institutions of higher learning lie at its apex. You can never have a strong and vibrant apex of Higher Studies without a robust and solid base of schools at the bottom end of the education system. Most schools in the Muslim World are weak by international standards.
Good teachers and quality teaching are the life blood of any schools system. Most schools in the Muslim World suffer from poor to modest quality teaching. School children in the Muslim societies often do not get quality education in the fundamentally important subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Information Technology, Economics, Finance and Essential Life Skills for a decent modern existance.
A rapid overhaul and enhancement of the schools across the length and breadth of the Muslim World is a dire need today.
Clerics hold an unusually influential place in the Muslim societies. Most of them tend to be very conservative. Their attitude towards rational thinking, science and technology ranges from ambivalence to hostility. They have historically viewed most of the modern education as an instrument of cultural imperialism by the Western countries. The clerics of the Muslim Societies have to be conivnced and encouraged to accept and promote modern scientific education in the interest of developing and empowering the Muslim World.
Most of the Muslim societies are gender biased when its comes to imparting education. Women and girls do not get the education which men and boys do. This educational discrimination against the women has led to structural instability and underdevelopment in the Muslim societies. We shall discuss the subject of gender discrimination in education in the Muslim Societies at length in our forthcoming opinion pieces.
Muslim World simply can not afford to stay illiterate, uneducated or academically backward compared to the rest of the world. Education is the key to development in the twenty-first century. Some Muslim countries such as Malaysia, Turkey, the Arabian-Persian Gulf Countries, the Central Eurasian countries and Egypt are relatively better educated than the rest of the Muslim World. Even their education systems, however, need a lot to be desired. Their success in educating Muslim societies are valuable lessons. We have to emulate, and learn from, their experiences in how to best educate Muslim Societies. The setbacks these countries, and the rest of the Muslim World, have faced in their attempts to educate masses and run good education systems are important lessons in develomental studies. The Muslim World can learn from the developed world for meeting its educational challenges. The developed world and some pockets in the rest of the world have attained decent success in educating their societies. Japan, South Korea, Scandinavian countries and the Germanic Soziale Marktwitshaft models are good examples to follow in crafting education policies and systems for the Muslim World. Our Muslim World can take a leaf from their book as we hope to attain major educational breakthroughs in our socities.