Quran in our Academic plan

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Quran is no doubt a part of our academic plan and is being taught at various levels and I must appreciate the works of the institute Al-Huda (Islamabad) in imparting deeper knowledge about Quran.

But the problem here is that at such institutes elders, who have got interest in learning Quran are more likely to come, and most of us, since childhood, are not taught to be inquisitive about Quran, to explore it deeper with our own understanding and, learn more and more from it. It is no doubt very important to memorize all or portions of Quran but understanding it again and again is very important.

To nurture such mindsets, academic institutes should at school level help students develop interest in Quran and its teachings.

Just like Paulo Coelho in his book "Aleph" writes that no two journeys on the same road are the same, similarly each time we will reflect on the meanings of various verses we would come across new things and would discover new horizons. One thing  more very important is that students should be taught to relate to verses, like when we recite the second verse of Surah Fateha:

ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Translation: The Beneficent, the Merciful.

Having read this students should be taught to relate to it and think of how they find Allah Almighty as beneficient and Merciful and experience sharing and discussions are always very productive for learning. It must very carefully decided that at which academic and mental level which surahs should the children be asked to think about.

One thing very interesting I came across a few days back when someone told me that Quran gives us the evidence that Jesus Christ (Hazrat Eesah A.S.) was not born in December but in fact he was born in October. I was surprised and asked: how? The answer was simple that Merry (Hazrat Maryam A.S.) was asked to shake the tree of the dates to let the dates fall down for her to eat (which means dates were ripe to fall off), and this happens in October in that region and not December! So no two journeys of reflection on the same Surah can be the same indeed!

Academic Evaluation

‘Evaluation’ in our academic system seems to be taking its roots from the concept of ‘day of judgment’ in Islam. Evaluation expressed in the form of ‘marks’ is based on just one big day, and that big day is all about jotting down what you have been asked and what you know, and if the student is not physically or mentally well that day or on that great day your thoughts are not co-operating well with words or you can’t turn up in the battle field then its your personal issue  the authorities or the teachers are least concerned and you ‘have’ to fail the course/subject. And the student has to wait for the same great big day next year! And trust me if you’re a chosen one then the same might happen to you the next year too!

Well, getting out of this nightmare, let’s see how to alter our system to correct this problem. A student should be constantly monitored and evaluated this would keep the student in action throughout the session and a lot of involvement from the side of the teachers would be required. This way stronger areas of the student would be explored and weaker areas be addressed. This sort of evaluation would require teachers’ attention towards each and every student and the students would really need to show their efforts.

The effort and focus of the student should be evaluated rather than outcomes in the form of words jotted down.

Methods should be revisited, competitions, quizzes, creative and collaborative work should be promoted. The teacher should impart interest in his subject and teach the student how to explore and learn themselves. Right now teachers impart horror rather than interest; they would tell the students how horrible it would be if they fail. And lets make a note what failure means here: its falling short of marks! Even if you have enough command over the subject, even if you’ve tried to learn.

Evaluation should not be about gauging how well a student can memorize and express himself rather it should be about the command of the student over the subject the knowledge base the student has developed over time. This knowledge base cannot be solely measured with written examinations, because two students having the same level of knowledge might not perform the same in written examinations. Every student does not have the same capabilities. If the same knowledge is input to a number of students(assuming they have absorbed it all) the outcomes would be different from learner to learner. Some might write well, some might come up with practical implications of the knowledge and some may speak very well about it. So writing is not the only faculty to rely upon alone.

Team work does it all!

Many thinkers and critics have lots to say about education and how the method and content of teaching be varied, as Pakistan stands as a suffering lot when it comes to education. From methods of teaching, to teacher training, to classroom environment, to evaluation policies to academic policies everything needs to be changed and revisited.

But the point here is although a small one but has a grave impact. ‘Teamwork’ is something that has tremendous effect on your personality, your ability to co-exist with different mindsets and beliefs. Team work is about recognizing and celebrating ‘diversity’. The diversity can be in thinking, behaviors, beliefs, perceptions, experiences, backgrounds, attitudes, opinions, interests and so on. Interestingly inclusion of team work in education does not require any resources or investment just some management is required. As for the current education scenario students never experience working in a team unless they pursue higher education. By that time it is really new for a student to work collectively in a team, moving from independence to interdependence is difficult for most of them. If a student has been working in a team since his early school years then this not only helps him into teams but also makes him a balanced individual.

Co-existence is very important either you study, work or you stay at home, because no individual can live in isolation, you are bound to interact and deal with people. That is why behind every successful venture, project, relationship there has to be a “we-worked-and-we-cooperated” and no “I-worked”, if a person has brilliant ideas and skills but cant work in a team then those skills and ideas are simply good for nothing most of the times. Now let us have a look at how team work does it all!

First of all the individual has to shift from ‘me’ to ‘we’ actually this is the basic attitude shift which teamwork is all about. In a team you learn to be with the team, and you should not expect the team to be with you!

Team members have to share their ideas and thoughts they must be able to communicate and express what they have in their minds, your ideas might get a unanimous ‘no’ from the whole team or you might get a ‘vow! Yes!’ a lot depends on how you convey, if you are being bossy people might not like hearing whatever you say, and if you don’t put forward your idea in a strong enough or confident enough manner then you would probably be ignored most of the times! So once you get along the team then you get to know a bit of the art of public speaking. For example rather than saying “lets do this” or “we should do it like this” one should say “why don’t we try this?”, “should we consider this option? Because being assertive never helps, in a team opinion of each team member is equally important before reaching a decision.

This thought sharing process is very helpful for building speaking and listening skills, because referring to public speaking some of us just speak, i.e. we are not willing to listen to what others have to say and some of us just listen!

Respecting each others views is also very important, because if you don’t listen to anyone then no one will listen to you as well, so you not only have to listen to and discuss but seriously consider even the most stupidest of the suggestions! In this way team members give each confidence to express themselves and taking part in the decision making process.

The most interesting and teaching aspects in working in a team is ‘conflicts’ this is a point where the team members could be heading on opposite directions where the team should be collectively moving together, and its only about time that team members learn that in order to move forward we have to ignore a lot and keep our common goal in focus. This common goal is something which can get the team out of the darkest of times. Resolution of disputes is the critical factor, and both sides should first of all agree that the dispute should be settled in the interest of the team. Once this is agreed upon then a solution is bound to evolve through mutual consultation and discussion. But it is very important to openly discuss issues if any. Another thing worth mentioning here is that a team cannot avoid disputes they can only resolve them because we have many conflicts even within ourselves so when people interact they are bound to encounter clash of opinions. In order to solve a problem it must first be recognized as a ‘problem’. Conflict in team is a vast topic and a domain in itself and much research has been done on it and whole of its details can not be dealt with in this scope.

Conflicts are beneficial as well because through them new things are thought about and the team discovers new ways and as a matter of fact conflict is the very base of ‘thinking’ so the team should not fear conflicting rather they should resolve them and keep figuring out via medias. 

Responsibilities need to be shared, in order to produce results every team member has to recognize and fulfill his responsibilities to prove himself as a constructive member of the team. Team members learn to focus on their own responsibilities rather than wasting time and effort in blaming each other.

When you are working in a team, your mistakes are more exposed and you have to admit what you have done wrong. But the good or bad consequences have to be shared! But everyone learns from each other’s mistakes. Every team member has to let go of his/her personal desires and goals as personal objectives are overshadowed by team objectives. A team should straightaway focus on ‘recovering’ rather than mourning the loss!

Gradually a group of people emerges as a ‘team’ and give each other the due space and start to co-ordinate and co-operate but this comes of time. Adjustability of a person increases tremendously once he/she is exposed to teamwork, as he learns to discuss, decide and work in a group. But it is very important to establish balance of power, there has to be an authority for final decision making to which the team members turn to give the final word. A good team leader leads from behind and manages the activities of the group without being authoritative like the leader should impart instructions not only through words but through deeds! Leader keeps himself informed without interfering. There are endless qualities of leadership which are again out of the scope of this article. At student level leadership gradually emerges as unknowingly there is a leader in the team which the members sometimes don’t realize but there is one member who tends to lead and makes the rest follow!     

Finally, Sharing and coordinating being the name of the game, in short, team work helps to build personalities and groom attitudes. It can be used as an effective tool in our education system and should be incorporated as a regular feature. But this is only if those educating really want to educate and groom healthy thinking minds!