What practical skills do Koranic students actually acquire at different levels of the West African system of Islamic learning?

What are the "practical" competencies that students acquire at different levels of West African Koranic schooling? What are the various daily uses to which such skills are put and the networks through which they are developed and ap plied? Koranic schooling in its many forms constitutes a long-standing parallel system of education throughout the Sahel and in much of the larger West African region -- one that has operated for centuries, yet remains relatively unknown to development pl anners and donors and is therefore seldom taken into explicit account in their policies and strategies.

This study focuses on a topic of live interest in an era of decentralization and increased need for new competence at local levels: How Koranic schooling does and can contribute to filling such human resource needs.

Any inquiry into the "practical" uses and secular impacts of Koranic learning is naturally problematic as well as topical. The present study is concerned with the levels of literacy and numeracy attained by different kinds and cohor ts of Koranic students, the numbers and types of people involved relative to the larger population of the localities in question, the vocational or technical skills that may be conveyed at the same time, and the socio-economic uses to which these new comp etencies are typically put. This is an issue of live interest in a period of decentralization and privatization when local communities, associations and businesses are being called upon to assume new responsibilities for which current levels of formal sch ooling among their members may not have equipped them. What are the "human resources" on which local groups can call in their effort to assume new development functions? Koranic learning -- with its alphabetic and semi-phonetic script, numerate system, tr adition of written communication and associated vocational contents -- is most certainly one of these, and any effort to better understand its "practical" contents and consequences, as well as the relations that link this form of instruction to other basi c education facilities and to labor markets, therefore, has obvious merit.

One must always recognize that these are "secondary" functions of Koranic education. Its primary objective has always been propagation and deepening of the faith.

At the same time, however, Koranic learning cannot and should never be reduced to strictly "utilitarian" terms. Like any predominantly religious form of instruction, Islamic schooling is designed to address first and foremost the sp iritual needs of its charges and to offer them avenues for growth in the faith. There have been movements at various times and in various places -- some mentioned below -- to add technical or practical contents to the Koranic curricula or to blend it with elements of formal secular schooling. Yet, overall, Islamic schooling emerged in response to divine mandate expressed in the Koran and was designed as a means for disseminating and deepening the faith. In examining its secular impacts, we are therefore o bviously dealing with what those most concerned would consider secondary or spillover effects of Koranic study -- a point to which we will return.

Yet it may at the same time have a significant role to play in "Education for All"...

It is therefore important to keep in mind that the focus of this study implies no disregard or disrespect for the primarily religious vocation of Islamic schooling, but simply constitutes an attempt to begin taking account of its pa rallel functions and effects -- some of which are arguably that much more important precisely because they are exercised in a religiously-appropriate form. The decade of the 1990s opened with a call for an expanded vision for meeting the basic lear ning needs of all people. Members of the international education community attending the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand emphasized the fact that the basic learning needs of youth and adults are diverse and must be met through a variety of delivery systems, including skills training, apprenticeships, and formal and nonformal education programs. They also reminded the world that education is not synonymous or co-terminous with schooling, but necessarily embraces nonformal and inf ormal education in families, religious groups, community or occupational organizations, and the mass media as well.

...for Koranic learning constitutes an educational reservoir largely ignored by policy-makers.

Seeking to reverse the downward spiral of the eighties, a difficult decade for education in Africa with worsening statistics in many areas, decision-makers have re-visited nearly the whole gamut of strategies tried over the past thi rty years. Largely overlooked has been the Koranic school, or rather the dense network of institutions of Koranic instruction that stretches from the village school to regional study centers and even foreign destinations. Particularly little is known outs ide Koranic education networks themselves about the results, replicability and potential broader impact of such instruction. Yet former Koranic students form a major portion of nonformal education students in many rural areas -- often advancing much faste r than their peers due to their previous training -- as well as the core staff of numerous economic associations and income-generating projects.

This study is designed to probe the nature and extent of its programs and of its outcomes.

This study was designed, therefore, to begin addressing a series of questions like the following:

• What is the coverage -- geographic, demographic, sociological -- of different levels and types of Koranic education in the regions under consideration?
• What is the predominant form of curriculum studied? What is the usual duration and timing of studies?
• What level and type of literate, numerate and technical skill do Koranic students in these center acquire in the course of their instruction?
• What other attributes or skills are acquired by these students that may be relevant to practical development concerns?
• How are these various skills and competencies applied in secular employment and daily life during or after the period of Koranic study?
• How are the institutions of Koranic education related to other providers of basic education in the same regions?

It is basically exploratory in nature, given the lack of reliable data on the topic.

The approach was basically exploratory, as relatively little work in this vein has been done to date, and resources for the present study -- in terms both of time and funds -- were distinctly limited. Procedure and analysis, therefore, both followed the dictum that it is better to be approximately right than exactly wrong.

Three types of data were used in investigating the topic: (1) published literature review; (2) "gray" literature review (unpublished project documents and theses); and (3) brief field studies and interviews in four countries.

Local research in Africa was con-ducted by national research teams in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal.

Four research teams in four separate countries -- Burkina Faso, Guinea (Conakry), Niger and Senegal -- were engaged to investigate the topic. The researchers involved and the references of the reports they developed are indicated mo re fully in the bibliographic appendix (cf. Bah 1966; Kane et al, 1997; Moussa, 1997; and Sy & Lam, 1997). All information relating to those specific countries and Islamic training within them that is not otherwise referenced below has been der ived from a synthesis of the named reports.

Research teams were given considerable latitude in developing their own research plans and instruments to investigate the topic as defined in the initial terms of reference (see Annex I), and each received a budget to cover research expenses and researcher honoraria (slightly larger in the case of those countries -- Senegal and Niger -- where more extended field study was proposed). Time, however, was short, given the abbreviated calendar set down for this particular cohort of ABEL studies; and difficulties encountered in initial transfer of funds further shortened it. The funds for execution of the studies could not be actually transferred to the people responsible until December 1996 or January 1997, the time at which the complete d research was theoretically due. This meant that most of those involved had little more than a month to do the work and there was little opportunity for a second round of data collection.

The sites visited in the course of these different studies are portrayed in Table I.

The nature of the field research sample is indicated in Table I.

At the same time, research personnel at Florida State University carried out a related review of literature and mined data gathered in the course of the earlier PADLOS-Education studies for relevant insights concerning the topic. On ce all studies were submitted to the central research team, it undertook the preliminary synthesis of data presented in these pages.

Data are therefore drawn from three overlapping sources: (1) a review of research literature, largely conducted in the United States and France; (2) a review of project documentation and other non-published sources like theses and d issertations, conducted both in the US and in the participating countries; and (3) collection of field data through visits to sites of Islamic instruction in the four countries and through interviews with students, teachers, leaders and other knowledgeabl e parties. There is ample documentary material on the development and current status of Islam as a whole in West Africa, as well as some on Koranic education worldwide and the more formal varieties of it on the African continent. Material on local Koranic schooling in Africa, however, and particularly on the learning outcomes and the secular uses to which they are applied is nearly non-existent. The field studies, as abbreviated and schematic as they were, therefore provided a critical complement to our r esearch.

Country

Region

Locality

Sample Characteristics

GUINEA

Torodoya

Torodoya

2 Koranic schools

Principal investigator

Danton

2 Koranic schools

plus 3 assistants; 24

Fallo Bantan

1 Koranic school

resource persons

Conakry

Kolona

2 Koranic schools

interviewed.

Bonfi

1 Koranic school

Fatoma

1 Koranic school

MALI

Bamako

Bamako

7 médersas

Principal investigator

interviewed 7 school

directors & 35 tchrs.

Bamako

5 Koranic schools

NIGER

Niamey

Niamey

2 Koranic schools

PI + 1 assistant

Say

Say

2 Koranic schools

SENEGAL

Dakar

Dakar

1 school; 1 institute

PI + 3 assistant

Thiès

Tivaouane

1 school

researchers, intervws

M’Bour

1 school

with 5 imams and

Louga

Malika

1 school

2 marabout consultns

Saint-Louis

Saint-Louis

1 school

Medina Guunas

1 school

Kolda

Kolda

2 schools

Tankon

1 school

Diourbel

Diourbel

2 schools

TOTAL 4 countries,

11 researchers and 73 resource persons.

11 regions

18 communities

37 Koranic schools and institutes

Results are reported hereafter in three sections: (1) historical and socio-economic back-ground information; (2) "foreground" data on Koranic schooling processes and outcomes in the sites visited; (3) con-clusions and policy recommendations.

The results reported below are divided into two major sections, each bridging across the three kinds of data: first, background information on the history, social role and instructional form of Koranic schooling in West Africa which is essential to understanding its present status and potential applications; and, second, data on the present curricular characteristics, student flows, learning outcomes and practical uses of Islamic instruction in the region. In the background section, we "triangulate" from a sample of the existing literature and the interview results from the field to trace some of the gross outlines and backdrop of the phenomenon. In the "foreground" section thereafter, we examine the outcomes and impacts of Koranic instruction essentially on the basis of the field studies. Despite the constraints under which these were executed, they furnish a much better picture of the reality than anything else we were able to locate.

This entire set of data is then summarized in a section devoted as well to discussing the practical implications of our results and related policy recommendations to those interested in educational improvement in West Africa.

The Islamic faith spread across the West African interior thanks to commerce and state-building. To this day, Islamic culture is strongly associated with traditional trade networks and power structures.

From a socio-economic point of view, Islam spread across West Africa principally through the effects of trade and war. Though personal conversion and the doctrine of God’s unity and transcendence were doubtless the motive forces at the individual level, at the societal one political and commercial movements provided the vehicle through which the faith was disseminated. Trans-Saharan trade flourished in pre-colonial times and carried most of the considerable merchandise exchanged bet ween Africa and Europe from the 11th to the 16th centuries -- until, that is, the arrival of European vessels on the West African coast and the institution of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and of the triangular commerce among Africa, Europe and the New W orld that it fueled. The backbone of trans-Saharan commerce consisted of networks of towns established along trade routes by initially itinerant merchants from North Africa and -- increasingly thereafter -- by related groups sedentarized in West Africa, l ike the "Wangara" (present-day Dyula) in the central Soudan or the Hausa in the eastern regions. The proceeds of this trade furnished much of the revenue needed for State-building, and conversion to Islamic faith often therefore began with local rulers. A strong association between Islamic networks on the one hand, and traditional commercial networks and power structures on the other, persists to this day.

...which served the continuing missionary role of Islam: overcoming paganism and instructing the faithful.

Teaching, learning and Koranic schooling were an automatic concomitant of Islam wherever the faith was spread. There are strong injunctions within Islamic tradition (hadith) for assiduous study of the Koran itself, and Is lam -- to an even greater degree than Judaism and Christianity -- is a "religion of the Book." Muhammad himself is reported to have said, "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr." Koranic scholars therefore followed soon after th e merchants and princes who spearheaded the dissemination of the faith; and schools were established in all nodular centers along the trade routes, gradually exercising influence over surrounding areas. In fact, the term "marabout", widely used in francop hone West Africa for one who has studied the Koran, is arguably a French deformation of the Arabic murabit, signifying inhabitant of a ribat or way-station in the network of commercial and religious dissemination.

It was essentially the missionary and teaching role of these "marabouts" that then enabled Islam to spread from nodular commercial centers to the surrounding villages and rural areas. This was a gradual and piecemeal task, except in spe cific zones of the West African interior like the Fouta Djalon (upland Guinea and neighboring plateau) where the entire population was Islamized through conquest in short order, or the Mossi plateau (in present-day Burkina Faso) which remained resistant t o Islamic incursion. By the 17th and 18th centuries, however, the Islamic movement had constituted a network of institutions and learning systems spreading across the Sahelian and savanna regions of West Africa.

and much more accessible to men than to women...

The educational system developed in this way had a number of characteristics that survive largely intact to the present day:

but it was at the same time decentralized, and, in a sense, democratic: it offered avenues for the devout commoner to challenge corrupt authority.

A recurrent concern to revive the faith and a tendency to adapt its expression to local practice led to considerable variation.

..but a flexible social system.

Yet Islam continues to spread in the subcontinent, nearly doubling its proportion of Senegalese adherents in the last 40 years. It has become a major influence in the acculturation of urban migrants.

The invasion of the European powers, which turned in the late 19th century from control of trade and external commerce to actual occupation of West African territory, effectively muzzled a simultaneous effort on the part of Isla mic rulers and brotherhoods in the region to extend their own influence and develop subcontinent-wide bases of power. Early colonial leaders -- and the French in particular -- therefore generally saw in Islam a serious rival, and sought to neutralize it b y restricting the construction of schools and mosques and supporting further fragmentation of the marabout movement into very localized religious fiefdoms. Later colonial leaders gradually developed a policy designed to use and subvert Islam, in which cer tain networks of marabouts and imams were rewarded for acting as transmission belts for administrative policy.

Early and late, European-language schooling was promoted as an antidote to Islamic learning and a vehicle for the transmission of "civilized" culture. As one result, leaders of African Islamic culture in many areas of West Africa came t o see these institutions as "the white man’s school" and to identify them implicitly or explicitly as seedbeds of heresy and immorality. During the present century, Islamic education in West Africa has had to compete with Western education. Through mid-ce ntury, the number of Koranic schools steadily diminished as the number of western schools increased; but Muslim culture received in some areas new impetus at the time of African independence from its identification with resistance to colonial rule, and it acquired increased momentum in the 1980s and early 1990s with the weakening of the African state and the international example of militant Islam.

Though the situation differs markedly from country to country, the numbers and proportions of Muslims continue to grow throughout much of the region. In Senegal, the percentage of the population reporting itself as Islamic grew from und er 50% in 1950 to over 90% in 1990; and in Mali fully one-quarter of formal primary school students were in Islamic institutes (médersas) by the mid-1980s (Bray & Clarke, 1986). Traditionally a phenomenon of trading towns and thei r rural hinterland, Islam has in recent years become a major force in the socialization and cultural adjustment of new urban migrants, who find little support in formal sector job markets and few public facilities to cushion the shock. At the same time, c ompetition with Western educational institutions has spurred a number of West African nations to modernize and strengthen their systems of Islamic education. Key institutions for this have been the Islamic University in Khartoum (Sudan), the Islamic Insti tute in Dakar (Senegal), the Islamic Institute of Higher Learning in Boutilimit (Mauritania) and the Islamic Education Center in Kano (Nigeria).

This system of Islamic learning in West Africa has three branches and three tiers, roughly portrayed in Table II.

The system of Islamic learning across West Africa is several-tiered though less rigidly structured than its Western counterpart. In addition, it now includes a traditional track (the Koranic sequence per se), a formal sch ool or "modern" equivalent (Franco-Arab schools, sometimes called médersa), and intermediate or hybrid forms often referred to as "improved Koranic schooling." At the base of the traditional network are the "maktab" or Koranic schools , the primary level of the system, where children begin, starting somewhere between the ages of 3 and 10, to learn the Koran and the basic duties of Islamic life. Next come the "madris" or secondary schools where those who have essentially memorize d and transcribed large portions (at least) of the Koran progress to a study of what is referred to as "Islamic science" (ilm), including the written traditions of the religion and a variable amount of other didactic material. A few select students proceed beyond this level to advanced study either with famed imams and marabouts of the region or at Islamic universities in North Africa and other Muslim countries. The entire system can be roughly represented in the manner portrayed in Table II.

Varieties of Islamic Education

("Koranic")

("Improved")

("Modern")

Levels

Elementay

(primary Koranic)

"improved"

Koranic school

médersa

Islamic

Secondary

(secondry Koranic)

(little developed

to date)

médersa

formal

sec schl

Eductn

Higher

affiliation with renownd scholar

Tertiary training

in North African or

Arabic universities

Tertiary trng in Eur-lang. univ.

Traditional Koranic schools are the base and most broadly-spread component of the system.

The traditional Koranic system is by far the most widespread branch, as well as the historical predecessor and base of all the others, and it is the one with which we will principally deal in this report. Reference will be made, how ever, to the other two varieties, both because they are acquiring increasing importance and because West African Islamic leaders themselves regard these as the "better quality" branches of the system and the ones that may serve as models for renewal of Mu slim learning in the region. Of these other two forms of Islamic instruction, the médersas are the oldest, the first such Franco-Arabic formal schools having been created in 1946 by colonial authorities, both as an effort at compromise betwe en Islamic and Western education that might satisfy the requirements of both and as a means for deflecting the momentum of Koranic schooling. They generally offer the standard formal school curriculum plus Koranic studies and Arabic language as their curr iculum, and include learned marabouts on their staff. "Improved" Koranic schools are a more recent phenomenon. This term covers a variety of initiatives taken by international organizations like UNESCO and Unicef, by national governments and by certain NG Os either to introduce additional curricula into some of the best of the existing Koranic schools or to blend the two forms of education outright. They are usually accompanied by teacher recruitment and training programs designed to upgrade the qualificat ions of Islamic educators.

The vast majority of boys and a large proportion of girls in Muslim communities begin Koranic school at a young age.

The vast majority of children in Muslim communities are enrolled in Koranic school at a young age, on a basis that coincides with their times of availability. Some study full-time, at least during the nonfarming seasons of the y ear. Others, like those also enrolled in Western schools, participate part-time, often in the evening after their other duties. Though parents try to place their children in what are perceived as the best Koranic schools -- that is, the ones held by reput ed scholars and benevolent masters -- there are no formal requirements for starting a school other than having attended one oneself and no pedagogical training for teachers. In addition, in smaller rural communities there may be little choice: the local " marabout" has the monopoly, or the village is served by itinerant scholars.

Girls typically spend less time in Koranic school than boys, partly due to household duties and marriage expectations, though instruction may be carried on in the home.

Effective participation rates at the elementary level are higher among boys, however, than among girls, particularly in rural areas, in part because the "available time" of the female members of the household is more fully absorbed by household chores and -- though average marriage age is rising -- they have traditionally been expected to leave the family by adolescence. There is one mitigating circumstance to this rule: thanks to the relatively flexible nature of Islamic instructio n and the lack of particular entry requirements, the roots of the network lie right in the household itself. Marabouts or apprentice marabouts may conduct classes within households for those who cannot easily get out, and family members with some level of previous instruction may carry on their own tutoring for their kin and neighbors. This method obviously does not lend itself, however, to any sort of advanced study on the part of the house-bound.

There are numerous ways of sequencing a basically unitary curriculum built around the Koran, but no standard "grade" system.

Drop-out rates in the initial Koranic instructional sequence are high -- 85-95% on average never fully complete the primary cycle of studies, concluding with memorization of the entire Koran and receipt of the isnad, a diploma of completion for this first level -- but drop-out does not have the same meaning in the Koranic system as it does in the Western one. For one thing, the purpose of the instruction is as much to expose participants to the Holy Book, to socialize them into the faith, and to teach them their essential duties as it is to confer any particular diploma or level of literacy per se. This religious objective may be admirably achieved even by those who do not complete the prescribed cycle. For another, there is no rigidly prescribed time for completing each level of instruction, and Koranic learning may be -- and often is -- resumed at any point in life. As with Christianity and Judaism at many points of their own history, the daily devotional life of the faithful Muslim is taken to be a gradual process of learning and enlightenment, and all religious festivals are marked by meetings and sermons meant to serve, inter alia, as forms of continuing education. In fact, the age expectations most disc ussed, and sometimes criticized, in West African Islam are those designed to slow down and deepen instruction, like the stipulation in certain regions that the student may not commence study of the ilm before 40 years of age, or the traditio nal norm among Fulani peoples that no one may teach before passing the age of 42.

There is no precise grading system, though different traditions and brotherhoods may subdivide progress toward the end-point of primary Koranic schooling in varying ways. But there is a roughly similar staging of instruction, mo re fully spelled out in some cases than in others. The version used in the Fouta Djalon region of Guinea, one of the "hauts lieux" of Islamic learning in West Africa, is portrayed on Table III hereafter as instructive and illustrative, though more elabora te than the norm. A degree (isnad in Arabic) is generally granted at the end of this primary cycle of instruction, and the student receives a turban and a copy of the entire Koran that he or she has transcribed.

Curriculum focuses on the Koran and the religious duties of Islamic life. The scientific and mathematical subjects of ancient Muslim education have been dropped or postponed to the secondary and tertiary levels.

The curriculum of traditional Koranic education focuses, of course, on the Koran -- the original word of God, delivered in the chosen language of God -- and on the religious duties of Islamic life. Nothing in the Koran itself, howev er, specifies just what this curriculum should be. Contents have been defined by tradition and by historical and cultural adjustment, though there has been a recurrent concern to ensure that these remain faithful to the spirit of Islam and to a solid trad ition of interpretation and understanding of the Holy Book. Significantly, early forms of Islamic education in Arabia and North Africa included scientific subject matter: astronomy, natural science and mathematics in particular. This breadth of focus did not always survive transitions of history and geography, however.

Instruction in science and math -- which, in any case, required well-trained teaching personnel -- gradually eroded over the early centuries of Islamic expansion. A first reactionary offensive 150 years after Mohammed’s death, and a sec ond around 1500 CE (i.e., at the precise time when Islam was spreading into subSaharan Africa) mostly eliminated scientific subject matter from the curriculum. As for mathematics, the close association in many devout Muslim minds between numbers and the c abalistic arts -- a constant temptation for Islamic literates due to the demand for such services, particularly from non-Muslim neighbors -- caused them to fall into disrepute.

Moreover, elementary Koranic schooling in West Africa is seldom literacy instruction per se, since texts are learned in a language that few -- including the marabout -- actually master.

As a consequence, the core Koranic school curriculum is largely limited to memorization and transcription of the Holy Book and to related religious socialization. Children tend to learn numeracy only to the extent that it is picked up from chapter and page numbering in the Koran itself. A few schools introduce portions of the ilm or "Islamic science" curriculum at the primary level, as is currently done in Egypt -- that is, broader exposure to Islamic traditions and history a nd, potentially, in a renovated program, to mathematics and natural science as well -- but most leave even the pared-down version of ilm study to the secondary level. As Goody has pointed out (1966, p. 214), primary Koranic learning in West Africa is not even literacy instruction per se, given that the linguistic medium is a language foreign to students and one which the instructor himself or herself often has not fully mastered. In addition, through a degree of accommodation to, or hybridization w ith, existing oral traditions in pre-Islamic Africa, Koranic instruction in West Africa has typically adopted a group recital format: Koranic schools in any community can generally be easily identified because their students may be heard chanting verses i n asynchronous chorus from some distance away.

Level

Content of Studies

Remarks

(1) Baa

Learning of Arabic consonants

All children should master at 6 or 7 years of age.

(2) Sigui

Learning of vowels and syllable composition

Children typically reach this stage at 7 or 8.

(3) Finditu

Learning to read/recite Koran in three steps:

Around 3/4ths of entrants expected to attain this stage.

A.

114th down to 88th sura of Koran

Naassi to Laalè.

B.

87th down to 67th sura

Khassiati to Tabaara.

C.

Remaining sura

Completion takes at least 2 years beyond "Sigui".

(4) Lintagol

Rereading and revision of Koran

This stage still taught in most major communities.

(5) Firugol

Translation and interpretation of Koran

Leads to a diploma called "Thierningol" and is considered pre-requisite to inclusion among "the wise ones" of the village.

(6) Higher

Further exegesis of Holy Book plus other subjects like Arabic grammar, mathematics and astrology.

Only available in major centers of Islamic learning within the country.

(7) Specialized

In particular areas like occult sciences, poetic incantation, applied theology and apologetics, etc.

Only available in specialized centers. May be taken concurrently with (6).

Second, Arabic writing is semi-phonetic. It can be and is used to transcribe several of the vehicular languages of West Africa.

Third, as community leaders and affiliates of Islamic commercial and authority networks, marabouts "socialize" their charges into a number of important aspects of adult life.

Fourth, though numeracy is mostly absent from the basic curriculum, the widespread use of Arabic writing for commercial transactions gives it importance.

Finally, there are many pressures for reform and improvement within the system.

Overall, Muslim education serves both to preserve the integrity of the Islamic culture and community and to integrate its charges into existing social and economic networks.

The evolution of Muslim education has responded to varied and sometimes contradictory political and social currents. Muslim education has at times been used as a bulwark against encroachment of "modern" or Western values and has at times been touted as the "fer de lance" of non-Western modernization. As a consequence, this century has seen a variety of movements devoted to reforming and updating it. Some of the richness and variety of this tradition is recounted in Annex II. There i s, in fact, a considerable resurgence or interest in renewal and reform of Islamic learning systems throughout West Africa.

Overall, Muslim education can thus be seen as having at least two broad socio-economic functions over and beyond its core religious ones: it serves to preserve the integrity of local Muslim culture from influences that might weaken the faith, i.e. to integrate and socialize members of the Muslim community to their shared culture; and it serves to integrate students into existing economic networks. It should be noted that these functions are not necessarily inimical to economic developme nt and may indeed nourish such development, depending on the willingness of both government officials and local community leaders to find common ground in their search for strategies to achieve the goals of national development.

Field studies served to amplify and test the results of the document review...

Field studies conducted in Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal offered an occasion to "ground-truth" or verify some of the generalities about Islamic instruction and its applications derived from the literature and to begin obtaining th e sort of empirical data on learning outcomes and practical uses of this kind of training that is so scarce in published material. In the section to follow, we report the most significant observations made during the field work, followed by illustrative d ata. A couple of significant difficulties encountered in carrying on the field studies should be mentioned first, however, because they are directly linked to the topic itself.

(1) the current sensitivity of anything concerning Islamic movements; and

Our investigation of the practical applications of Koranic instruction was handicapped by two factors which have major significance in and of themselves.

• First is the political sensitivity in these countries of anything concerning Islamic movements and their relations with State functions, an issue dating from colonial times when Islamic instruction was seen as a potential seedbed of counter-culture and political opposition to French rule. It is apparently for related reasons that directors of the international research program which in recent years has touched most closely on this issue -- the multi-country study of "diversification of the educational field" carried out in the 1980s under IIEP aegis -- were told midway through their work by UNESCO superiors to drop the Koranic school issue.

(2) reticence on the part of interviewees to consider the "practical" applications of Islamic learning

• Second is the fact -- experienced in each of the countries under consideration -- that Islamic leaders themselves tend to minimize or even resent the notion that Koranic instruction has practical implications or that students might be (implicitly) motivated by these. For them, the situation is clear: Koranic learning is an imperative in Islam for personal salvation, and it is for the greater glory of God and the deepening of one’s spiritual life that students undertake such study. T his attitude is evidently reinforced by the fact that, particularly in the realm of elementary Koranic schools, the "practical application" that most readily springs to mind, because widely exercised and often marketed, is divination and related magico-re ligious arts, much of it borderline sacrilegious in the eyes of devout Imams.

The practical implications and applications of Koranic learning appear, therefore, both massive and largely unrecognized.

The central issue of this study is therefore framed by a contradiction: On the one hand, large proportions of the population in the areas concerned have undergone some level of Islamic instruction, and people semi-literate or litera te in Arabic transcription of African languages and numerate or semi-numerate in Arabic form show up regularly both in responsible positions within development projects and in nonformal education and literacy programs. On the other hand, both students and teachers in Koranic schools make little of this and seem to give scant attention to practical aspects of the instruction. In fact, one of the reproaches made to current forms of Islamic learning in West Africa by Muslim scholars and historians themselves from these same countries is that dimensions of instruction that are countenanced by the Koran and part of the tradition -- like science, vocational training, mathematics and the like -- are rarely taught.

A number of key observations were nonetheless made:

Field researchers were nonetheless able to broach the topic with quite a variety of Koranic students, former students, teachers and leaders in both urban and rural settings (composition of sample indicated in Table I above). The most important of their discoveries are summarized and supported below:

Our field results confirm the very extensive nature of the Islamic schooling network: over 40,000 schools in Niger alone.

Participants are highly aware of Islam’s long history in West Africa.

Within the system, both quality and approach vary considerably.

The teaching personnel are sometimes among the most influent and richest people in local society.

The vast majority of children in predominantly Islamic areas attend Koranic school. Boys outnumber girls in most regions, but not heavily until higher levels of instruction. Increasingly, a marriage premium is put on young women literate in Arabic scri pt.

A good proportion of male students who continue beyond the rudiments of Koranic learning do reach the secondary level.

GUINEA

NIGER

LEVEL

Men

Women

Boys

Girls

Men

Primary

0

75

72

91

2

Secondary

22

0

20

9

16

Tertiary

55

0

0

0

6

TOTAL

77

75

92

100

24

Practical literacy, however, is generally found only among the minority who have persevered, or more widely in regions where African languages are transcribed in Arabic characters.

Numeracy is seldom present in the curriculum, but most marabouts have picked it up and many use it in local accounting functions.

Though vocational training is seldom an explicit part of Islamic instruction, the need for students to earn their way and the economic roles of marabouts lead both to a number of internship opportunities and some notable abuses.

The rote learning of Koranic studies itself has practical uses; the program provides models for task-oriented organization of time; and it is a solid moral reference.

Writing corres-pondence and giving Koranic instruction are the most widespread individual uses of training, but Koranic students show up in a variety of other public functions.

At the collective level, Koranic learning is the basis for much local juris-prudence and governance. Central govern-ment and NGOs are just beginning to call upon these resources.

(1) It constitutes an introduction to the technology of writing.

The consequence of these factors is that basic Islamic instruction -- of the kind dispensed in local Koranic schools -- seems to have three essential dimensions of practical application and impact in the areas visited during the stu dy:

• It constitutes an introduction to the technology of writing -- and, to a lesser extent, that of numeracy -- for a sizable proportion of the population, both men and women. Those who proceed far enough to gain fluency in reading, wri ting and calculating for daily practical purposes (generally in some African language, as functional knowledge of Arabic itself is even more restricted) constitute overall a minority, though a sizable one in some areas. Moreover, literacy in Arabic script has become a point of reference in many rural and small town settings thought of as largely "illiterate" in Western terms.

(2) It is a school for religious and social leadership.

(3) It provides an alternate avenue for economic and political advancement.

• It is a training as well for local leadership, since solid Islamic instruction is generally accepted to be an indicator of morality, honesty and discipline and therefore a primary qualification for assuming positions of responsibili ty.
• In addition, it has always been -- and, given recent disaffection with formal schooling, has increasingly become -- an avenue for social and economic advancement because of the close relationship between Islamic networks and traditi onal commercial ones throughout the region. Koranic school graduates are more likely to find employment or apprenticeship with traditional merchants and in informal sector marketing operations.

Relations between Koranic schooling and other forms of basic education are poorly understood.

Just as the practical applications and implications of Koranic learning are real but little recognized by its personnel, so also the relations between this form of education and others in evidence at the local level are substantial but mostly unavowed and uncoordinated. The strongest unofficial ties have been formed between Koranic schools and literacy or nonformal education on the one hand, and between Koranic schools and informal sector commercial activity on the other. In the fir st case, numerous former Koranic students show up in literacy instruction for several significant reasons:

Yet they are real: many Koranic students show up in nonformal education programs.

There is some de facto competition among primary schools NFE programs and Koranic instruction, but more benign neglect.

In the second case, traditional commercial networks constitute an outlet for employment of Koranic school leavers, one further reinforced by the fact that the ElHaji’s of each locality (those having made the pilgrimage to Mecca) are lar gely composed of well-to-do members of this merchant class.

Our researchers note, however, more instances of competition among primary schools, nonformal education programs and Koranic schools at the local level than of active or constructive cooperation, though by far the most common situation is a general lack of contact and coordination among them. Indirectly, however, there appears to be a great deal of crossover: students of one show up in the other, curricular and pedagogical modes are imitated (rote learning in primary school, addition of new curricular elements in Koranic schools, transitions to French in nonformal education).

Substantive issues are the most important. Several conclusions can be drawn and related recommendations made.

The countryside is covered by a relatively dense network of Koranic schools. They may seem "inefficient" in Western terms but achieve their ends.

Women are underserved but not excluded.

Scientific, literacy and mathematical subjects have traditionally been neglected but are due for a comeback.

Whatever its current shortcomings, the system will remain a major factor in human resource mobilization.

Policy-makers should pay greater heed to the potentials of this system and of Arabic script communication.

Intervention strategies should focus initially "on the demand side" -- that is, on finding ways to employ Arabic script compe-tence in deve-lopment management..

Coordination among Koranic schools and other providers of basic educa-tion is highly desirable but to be achieved locally - though central encou-ragement can help..

The methodological issue: Assessing the skill and knowledge "yield" of Islamic instruction

Participating African researchers could benefit from more such "praxis" opportunities.

(2) Determining actual learning outcomes will require in the future a more developed testing mechanism.

• First, it turned out to be almost as hard to get researchers to concentrate on the skill and knowledge application issues as it did the Islamic interlocutors themselves. In future efforts, it might be best to approach the research i tself from the demand side as well -- that is, by starting with some of the principal contexts where people use Koranic knowledge to practical ends, like village associations, traditional market networks, and local income-generating activities, and then s eeing how those involved acquired and now use their skills. Qualitative tracer studies or ethnographic interviews of this type would be very helpful.
• Second, it was difficult to pin down the levels and types of literate and numerate competence actually acquired by students through descriptive interview with stakeholders; and in a subsequent iteration it would be advisable, time a nd resources permitting, to devise and pretest a simple set of instruments for assessing competence levels in Arabic literacy, Arabic-transcription African language literacy, and numeracy. The Guinean team made some important first strides in this directi on, and the ideal solution might be to hold an operational seminar on the topic where all concerned could develop and test methods together.

But the topic has demon-strated real potential and deserves to be further pursed.