Historical Background of Education

Prior to the establishment of English-medium public schools and universities, children from Muslim families had to rely on Madaris for both religious and worldly modern studies.
According to historians, the first known Madrassa was established in Egypt by the Fatimid caliphs in 1005 AD.
It possessed all of the characteristics of a modern educational institution at the time.
It had a library, teachers for various subjects were appointed, and students who were admitted were given free ink, pens, and papers.
An interesting fact about these “Nizamiah” Madaris is that a catalogue of inventory prepared in 1045 revealed that it had 6500 volumes on various subjects such as astronomy, architecture, and philosophy.
When Egypt was retaken, the entire system was replaced and redesigned.
In those Madaris, old versions of teaching techniques were replaced with newer versions and techniques.
Books and manuscripts that appeared contradictory or ambiguous in their beliefs were destroyed, while volumes related to worldly knowledge were preserved.
A large number of books were taken to Baghdad, where the first organised Madrassa (Nizamiah) was established in 1067 by a Seljuk Vizier named Nizam-ul-Mulk Hassan Bin Al-Tusi. Nizam-ul-Mulk established a new Madrassa that provided two types of education:1. Scholastic theology would produce spiritual leaders,2. and worldly knowledge would produce government servants who would be appointed in various Islamic empire countries and regions.
Later, Nizam-ul-Mulk established a slew of Madaris throughout the empire.
In addition to teaching Islamic knowledge, they also taught science, philosophy, public administration, and governance. Nizam-ul-Mulk is regarded as the founder of the Islamic public education system, which provided free food, education, and lodging under one roof.
He is the author of “Siyasat Nama,” a well-known book on public administration among early Muslims (the way to govern).
Initially, during Akbar’s reign (1556-1605), Fatah Allah Shirazi (1589), a great Iranian scholar of Akbar’s court, redesigned the Madaris curriculum.
Shirazi, a great scholar of rational sciences, emphasised rational sciences (Maaqulaat) by including more books on logic, philosophy, mysticism, and scholasticism.
On the other hand, the tradition of teaching religious and spiritual sciences also flourished at that time.
This tradition was nourished by Sheikh Ahmed Sirhandi (1624), Sheikh Abdul Haq Muhadith Dehlvi (1641), Maulana Abdul Rahim (1718) and his son Shah Wali Ullah (1762). Imam Shah Wali Ullah Muhaddis Al-Dehelvi (R.E) (1702–1762) was considered as the founder of these religious schools “Madaris” in this area, which are still following the syllabus which was formulated during his lifetime by one of his eminent followers Shaikh Nizam Uddin Al-Ansari of Farangi Mahal, Lucknow during 1748 and later it become known as Dars-E-Nizami.
It covers Islamic Sciences such as Morphology, Syntaxes, Logic, Philosophy, Jurisprudence, Islamic Jurisprudence Principles, and Theology.
Shaikh Nizam Uddin attempted to keep it neutral in tone so that it did not develop a sectarian base among the students.
It included reformist elements and aimed to rid Muslims of what these scholars saw as un-Islamic practices while also propagating scriptural Islam, with an emphasis on religious sciences.
During the colonial period, as Christian missionaries intensified their work, and as Ulama and Muslim education were denied state patronage due to the colonial state’s anti-Muslim (endowment) policies, the second half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of various Maslak/School of Thoughts (factions) in South Asian Islam, as well as Madaris related to these Maslak/School of Thoughts, which claimed to protect Muslim identity and preserve Islamic Dar-Ul-Uloom in Deoband, Northern India, was the most famous of these Madaris.
Persian was the language of Muslim court and culture until the second half of the nineteenth century.
It was the language of colonial administration after the British took over until 1835, when it was replaced by English.
It was eventually replaced by provincial vernaculars. Vernacular in Northern India meant Urdu/Hindi. With this substitution, Ulama switched from Persian to Urdu as the language of communication, both in print and in the Madaris, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Persian commentaries and glosses on Arabic texts, which were first published in the early nineteenth century, were gradually replaced by Urdu translations.
Urdu became the medium of instruction in most Madaris, and Ulmaa preferred to debate, write, and publish in this language for all purposes.
Numerous translations of the Qur’an and other religious classics were printed in Urdu, contributing to the language’s development. Language, print, and improved communication methods revitalised the Madaris’ learning environment and contributed to the strengthening of religious identity among Muslims in colonial India.
Prior to the establishment of Pakistan, during the British colonial era, the main source of education for the people of the Indo-Pak Subcontinent was also “Madaris” for Muslims and temples for Hindus, both of which were mostly associated with “Gurukul or Pathshala.”
Both types of institutions were run by religious scholars and funded by local communities.
Lord Macaulay was assigned a special mission to investigate the continent’s educational system and recommend changes or replacements based on their plans.
To implement those policies, a new English Medium Public School system was introduced throughout the continent, with “Aitchison College of Lahore” serving as an example.
Along with those, missionary schools were established, which were under the direct supervision of the Bishop of that area, and the entire teaching staff was made up of Christian missionaries, and the school included a church or chapel.
The main goal of those teachers was to teach their students the manners that they had brought from Britain and to brainwash the young generation at the time so that they would become part of their system in the name of so-called better education.
Madaris, on the other hand, functioned as full-fledged educational institutions.
Those Madaris were crucial to the unity of the Muslim Ummah.
The main infrastructure and system of those institutions were based on the traditional institution system of Khilafat-e-time. Rashida’s Along with religious studies, spirituality, and modern sciences, multi-lingual manners were also part of their teachings, which played a significant role in the revival and awakening of Muslims throughout the Indo-Pak Subcontinent.
During the educational slump, Hindus adapted to the new education more readily than Muslims. Muslim leaders, such as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, saw the risk that their co-religionists would lag behind Hindus and be excluded from the bureaucracy if they did not prefer the modern educational system over the traditional.
In 1875, Sir Syed established the Anglo-Oriental College (later renamed Aligarh Muslim University). It did not completely demolish the traditional educational system, but it did severely damage its reputation and standards.
The Anglo-Oriental College provided higher education on the British model (particularly that of Cambridge University) and produced remarkable leadership for the Muslims of the Sub-continent, particularly in present-day Uttar Pradesh, for educational, social, and legal reform, as well as promoting the Muslim nationalist movement, which eventually led to the Sub-partition continent’s and the birth of Pakistan.
It also produced brilliant graduates who went on to higher education in England, some of whom served in the Indian Civil Service, which prided itself on being the iron framework of the British imperial edifice in India.
In 1947, when Pakistan declared independence from India on the basis of a two-nation theory and in the name of Islam, it had a poorly educated population, only 189 Madaris or, according to another estimate, 245, very few schools, and only one institution of higher education, “The University Of Punjab.”
Women’s literacy was the lowest in Pakistan when compared to the rest of the developing countries in the region, and it was only 16 percent at the time of independence, and it has been increasing at a rate of about 4 percent per decade since then due to population growth.
The female literacy rate in 1947 was around 2.8, and it has been increasing at a rate of about 2% per decade until 1961, and it has been increasing at a rate of about 5% since 1961.
In the academic year 1947-48, there were 644 students, including 56 female students, at two universities in Lahore and Karachi.
Prior to the partition of the subcontinent, the level of acquiring higher education among youth in this region was very low.
With the expansion of a number of universities, the number of enrolments among girls and boys began to rise gradually.
Between 1947-48 and 1996-97, the total number of enrolled students increased from 644 to 799215 (122 times).
During this time, the number of girls enrolled increased by 316 times while the number of boys enrolled increased by 103 times.
Enrollment trends indicated that the gender gap was gradually closing, which was a positive sign for a newly born developing country.

Historical Background of Education

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