By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
A senior lecturer with the department of Islamic Studies, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Prof. Jaafar Makau Kaura, has called on the federal government to effect a total review of the curriculum on Arabic and Islamic education to enhance the drive for scholarship and knowledge.
Speaking at the National Conference on Islamic Scholarship and Scholars in Modern Nigeria: 1900 to Date at the Bayero University, Kano, yesterday, Kaura said the “search for a robust scholarship on Arabic and Islamic education depends on the introduction of an effective curriculum aimed to give a human face to the concept to be premised on the realities of modern Nigeria.”
Kaura said the legacy of British colonialism had been a cog in the wheel of academics and scholars whose penchant for excellence was greatly impeded by the colonial masters’ vested interest in lending credence to English at the expense of the much-reverred Arabic language.
He said the Arabic language and Islamic education was presently facing a tough challenge in the face of acute shortage of modern text books and lack of adequate quality graduates who were supposed to make the pursuance of the courses formidable, adding that once the major challenges were fully addressed, the frontiers of Arabic and Islamic education would be expanded.
He said “in modern Nigeria, the search for Arabic and Islamic scholarship has made an appreciable headway and recorded a huge success, having been widely seen and recognised as an important pillar of human civilisation stressing that the federal government should see it as a matter of priority to effect its thorough review.”
In his goodwill message, the Vice Chancellor, Bayero University, Kano, Prof.
Muhammad Yahuza Bello, said the National Conference on Islamic Scholarship and Scholars had come at a time when scholars in the field ought to buckle up and make the system ticking pointing out that no amount of effort was too much in making the two courses formidable.
While calling on the participants to make good use of the knowledge they had acquired at the conference for effective application in future academic endeavours, stressing that the University was ready to take the bull by the horns in making the event an annual exercise.
