 Two prominent Pakistan scholars visited IIIT Friday February 13, 2009 and briefed a group of selected scholars and IIIT staff of their ongoing work on enhancement of madrasas in Pakistan. Dr. Abdul Rashid, religious scholar and former Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi spoke about the Madrasa Teacher Training Institute he has established at the University of Karachi to provide professional training and eventual certification for madrasa teachers – the first of its kind in Pakistan.
The Madrasa Project started in 2004 with the primary objective of engaging Pakistani madrasa teachers in training programs that encourage expansion of the madrasa curriculums to include the scientific and social disciplines, with a special emphasis on religious tolerance and human rights, encourage the adoption of pedagogical techniques that promote critical thinking skills among the students, convey conflict resolution (and dialogue-facilitation) skills, and equip selected workshop graduates with the skills to train other previously uninvolved madrasa leaders in these same areas.
The program has been a great success so far. Over the past four years ICRD and its partners in Pakistan have worked with more than 2000 madrasa administrators and teachers from more than 1300 madrasas.
These leaders represent all five of the religious sects that sponsor these schools: Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahl-Hadith, Shia, and Jamat-i-Islami.  For more on the Madrasa Project, please check the ICRD website: www.icrd.org |