By Amoto Dennis
The Government has been urged to integrate lower cadre dugsi and madrassa Islamic school in mainstream education system to boost enrolment.
The National Council of Nomadic Education of Kenya (NACONOEK) proposes dugsi and madrassa teachers be in the government payroll and the centers act as feeder schools in outposts inaccessible to secular schools.
The acting secretary of National Council for Nomadic Education Harun Yusuf said that harmonisation of Islamic and mainstream education would help more children attend classes as they continued with mandatory Quranic studies at tender age.
‘’ The program targets more children to attend all round education,’’ said Yusuf.
He added that the program aims to develop the Islamic system of education and target the challenges of approximately 2 million school age children out of school in the counties where nomadism and other cultural challenges like rampant child marriages and female genital mutilation exist.
The harmonization targets seven predominantly Muslim counties where the mandatory parallel education system of dugsi and madrassa are funded by the community.
Spot check at schools and colleges reveals that the community funded education system has more enrolment than public or private schools.
‘’Some students in private and public schools also attend the parallel classes,’’ said Sheikh Ali a senior retired tutor now a farmer in Garissa. He added that research shows children who master the Quran perform better in school than those who haven’t. The harmonisation program targets Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Isiolo, and Lamu, Mombasa, and Tana River counties.
