Editor’s note: The characteristics of a good Islamic teacher have been defined as thus:

Love for children; love for the profession of education; humility without weakness; health and vitality of  the body; psychological health and emotional balance; neatness, cleanliness and good appearance; eloquence and good pronunciation; intelligence and deep understanding; understanding students and their needs; strong command of the subject; broad and deep reading and knowledge; punctuality and respect for time; co-operation with the school system and policies; being courteous with students and fellow teachers; socialization with people and no isolation; knowledge and practice of Islam; to stay away from questionable sayings or deeds, even if it is lawful to do so; and sincerity.

- ISNA handout, 1994, quoted in The Purpose of an Islamic School and the Role of an Islamic School Teacher

What we are witnessing in the state education system in Britain, and no doubt also in other state education systems in the Western world and in other countries which mimic them, is the progressive destruction of the concept and practice of a holistic system of education—that is, a broad and balanced system of education based on an understanding of the full potential of the human being and a system of pedagogy designed to awaken and develop that potential.

This has been a gradual process of attrition, constriction, and ultimate strangulation, culminating in a sterile, standardized, bureaucratic system which stifles creativity and demoralizes students and teachers alike. We see the triumph of quantification, league tables, and the proliferation of an oppressive and soulless target-driven regime derived from alien corporate models and control-obsessed managerialism. We see unremitting assessment of uninspiring objectives and dangerously narrow prescriptive content.

What is behind this is an agenda geared almost exclusively to a utilitarian concept of education, a reduction of truly holistic education to a narrow band of skills for the workplace. This is a concept of education geared to economic performance, competition, and efficiency above all else. The British Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) White Paper, Schools:Achieving Success, gives the game away in the first paragraph of the Introduction: “The success of our children at school is crucial to the economic health and social cohesion of the country, as well as to their own life chances and personal fulfillment.” Notice the priorities which are placed first in this sentence.

It was the promise of “Education, Education, Education” as the “number one” priority which was one of the main reasons why the New Labor Party of Tony Blair was elected to government in the United Kingdom in 1997. Now, five years on, and with New Labor reelected to a second term, Tony Blair has reiterated his commitment to education—but what kind of education? In an exclusive interview reported in the Times Educational Supplement of July 5, 2002, Blair states that “Education is and remains the absolute number one priority for the country because without a quality education system and an educated workforce, we cannot succeed economically.” The real priority is clear, and it is the same one (economic power) as that which governs educational policy in the White Paper.

In his publisher’s note to New York State Teacher of the Year John Taylor Gatto’s challenging book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, David H. Albert refers to the words of the social philosopher Hannah Arendt that “The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.”

Gatto’s indictment of the assumptions and structures which underlie modern state schooling in the United States exposes the same deadening utilitarian agenda which informs British educational policy, an agenda geared to turning children into cogs in an economic machine, children who are dependent, conforming, materialistic, and lacking in curiosity, imagination, self-knowledge, and powers of reflection. This is the modern equivalent of the worst of Victorian education geared to the production of a regimented, empire-serving army of uncritical ledger clerks and petty officials.

Supporting the utilitarian agenda in the United Kingdom, and also fuelled by pressure to do well in league tables of performance, is a debilitating testing regime perhaps even more excessive than the national obsession with standardized testing in the United States. A national UK newspaper, reporting recent research by Cambridge University for the National Union of Teachers, refers to a testing “insanity” which is gripping primary schools in the United Kingdom. Almost half the weekly timetable is now taken up by mathematics and English lessons and thousands of children as young as seven are being tested every week on their reading. The disproportionate emphasis on the teaching and perpetual testing of a narrow band of literacy and numeracy skills, which are deemed to be essential for economic survival, is taking the heart and soul out of education.

The researchers conclude that “the amount of time for teaching each day does not allow for a broad and balanced curriculum,” and creative subjects such as art, drama, and music are being increasingly squeezed out of the classroom. In response to the report, John Bangs, Head of Education of the National Union of Teachers, said, “What is shocking about the report is the extent to which arts have been eliminated from primary schools. Tests and targets are wiping out pupil and teacher creativity.” In some schools, art is now dropped from the curriculum in the last year of primary school (at age 10-11).

History at A-level (university entrance standard in the United Kingdom) is now regarded as such a narrow, limited, and impoverished historical education that Cambridge University no longer requires undergraduate historians to have it. The head of history at Latymer School in North London described the A-Level course as “history for the MTV generation—know a little but keep on repeating it.”

A joint Royal Society and Joint Mathematical Council working group reported in July 2000 that the teaching of mathematics was increasingly being reduced to nothing but numbers, and that the death of geometry, the study of shape and space, in mathematics education could only be to the detriment of visual and spatial intelligence. It takes little insight to see in this entirely quantitative approach a verification of René Guénon’s vision of the “Reign of Quantity” as indicative of the profound crisis in contemporary life and thought.

A Geographical Association survey has found that “geography has been dropped as a subject specialism by more than one quarter of initial teacher-training institutions.” Humanities simply do not have the status of core subjects such as English, mathematics, and science, so “young teachers who want promotion will probably focus on core subjects.”

As if the marginalization and impoverishment of the arts and humanities and the death of geometry were not enough, a survey by the Association of Language Learning suggests that more than 1,000 schools in the United Kingdom are planning to drop foreign language lessons for pupils over 14. In February 2002, the German, Italian, and Spanish ambassadors had spoken out in an interview with The Independent about the “sad” standard of language teaching in the United Kingdom.

In the recent flurry of debate about the pros and cons of faith schools, Faisal Bodi has argued a strong case for Muslim schools, but I have to question the emphasis in his contention that two well-funded Muslim schools in London have turned out to be “factories for university graduates and professionals.”

This is of course meant to be a compliment to those schools, which are indeed models in many ways. Now, no one would deny that there is a pressing need for Muslim graduates and professionals, and those who have attained to this status deserve congratulation, but I have spent most of my working life combating the idea that schools should be “factories” geared only to examination results. We need graduates and professionals who are not only successful in their specialized fields and able to advance their own careers, but also creative, well-educated and well-rounded in the broadest sense, with concomitant cultural, moral, emotional, and spiritual development.

In the face of an impoverished curriculum and its associated regime of perpetual testing, it is hardly surprising that “growing numbers of young teachers are quitting the profession because they think schools are becoming results factories, where heads insist targets are met regardless of the human cost.”

We need to be very clear that, as a recent MORI poll has reported, the main reasons given for parents supporting faith schools in the United Kingdom are a desire for their children to be educated in the same values and beliefs as their family (35%); good discipline (28%); and religious ethos (27%). Only 10% cited good exam results. Interestingly, and surprisingly, this partly reflects the reasons cited by parents for sending their children to independent schools (reasons strong enough to motivate many of them to make huge personal sacrifices to pay high fees). In a survey carried out by IAPS (Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools in the United Kingdom) discipline is given as the foremost reason, but other important reasons include small classes and a broad and balanced curriculum, including the survival of those humanities subjects under threat in the state system, resources and facilities for sports, a wide choice of extra-curricular activities, and opportunities for cultural development, including music and art.

You would think that highly motivated and successful parents would place examination results as a top priority, but they do not. In the case of independent schools in the United Kingdom, it may be that they take high academic standards for granted. The gap in academic standards between independent schools and state schools is very wide: in those independent schools which take the government tests at age 11, for example, over 95% of children reach the required level in English, mathematics, and science; whereas in state schools it is barely 70%. My own experience at a leading independent school in England confirms that their 13-year-olds were generally two or three years ahead of children of equivalent age in the average state school).

It is also vital to note the differences between reasons given by parents for sending their children to faith schools or independent schools. While both groups give discipline as a key factor, the faith school parents emphasize family values and beliefs and religious ethos and identity; whereas the independent school parents emphasize breadth of education, including sport, extra-curricular activities, cultural expression, and humanities. The best Islamic education will ensure that this breadth of education is added to their ethical and spiritual appeal. Interestingly, a recent report showed that young people who have creative hobbies (e.g., playing a musical instrument, collecting things, model making, etc.) are happier than those who do not; they suffer from less depression and engage in less crime than those who can only occupy themselves by watching television, playing computer games, or “hanging around” outside with their friends, so there is a clear connection between extra-curricular fulfillment and the maintenance of ethical values and happy families.

• Excellence in Islamic Education

Next Week: Defining Islamic Education