Education in the Madrassah

Madrassah is a traditional Isslamic School, where many children from the age of 5 would be sent by their parents to learn how to read the Qur’an. It is also known in the local language as Shiyoni. The word Madrassah is an Arabic word mostly used in every Islamic society for many centuries.

The method of learning in Madrassah / Shiyoni can be explained in three basic steps:

1. Learning the Arabic Alphabetic by reading and writing.
2. Learning how to be fluent in reading the Glorious Qur’an
3. Learning and understanding certain Fiqh books (The science of the Islamic pillars)

Generally in Grande Comore, children learn how to read and writing Arabic characters by using a simple and basic book called Kurwassa. This simple book (kurwassa) contains the Arabic Alphabetic along with some basic instructions on how to read and writing in Arabic.

Kurwassa originally composed and compiled by various Islamic institutions based in the City of Mombassa, the second largest City of Kenya East Africa through whom its largest population are dominantly Muslims. Kurwassa also contained several Surat from the Glorious Qu’ran, mostly from Juzuu-Amma. Once a child is able to read this beginners book, he/she would move to the second step of learning in Shiyoni. This second step is known in Comorian language as Ngemswahafuni, which means the child begins to learn from the Glorious Qur’an according to Tajweed (the art of reciting the Qur’an).

The primary objective of going to the Shiyon in Grande Comore is to learn how to read the Glorious Qur’an and develop one's basic understanding of Islamic practices and the pillars of Islam.

Islam is the main religion followed by the Comorian people. In fact it is very, very rare to find a Comorian person, who follow any religions other than Islam. Religions such as Christianity and Judaism have no teaching influences on the lives of the Comorian people for so many generations.

After it has been established, approved and acknowledged by the Madrassah teachers (Fundi) that the child is able to read the Glorious Qur’an fluently, then the next step is to begin learning certain books of Fiqh (the Islamic Science of performing all the religion pillars, which is an obligatory up on every Muslim) .

The books to be learn include: The Baabu, the Safina, Rissalah, Mabadiu Al-Fiqh and many other fiqh books. All these books are taught according to the school of thought of Al-Imam Shafi, which is the branch of Fiqh the Comorian people follow in performing their Islamic daily obligations in life.

Do the Village children like attending to the Madrassah?

Going to Madrassah in the Village it is an obligation imposed upon all children by their parents. However, many children don’t like going to Madrassah. Perhaps the reason here could be the teaching methodology or the implications posed on the children by teachers.

There could be many other reasons for which discouraged the children attending Madrassah on regular basis. One of the reasons might be that the Madrassah’s system is very restricted and hard to keep up with.

The following could be thought of as some of the other reasons why children on the Island in general don’t like attending Madrassah:

In the Madrassah whipping was something so common in the early days of of traditional Madarassah. The punishment was normally carried out by the Madrassah's educator, or by one of his appointed supervisor. Sting-natal was another form of weapon teachers use for punishing the children. Other method of punishing, such as slapping and smacking would also be used for punishing those who disobey, or break any code of conduct in Shiyoni. Any disobedience whether major or minimal would result to such punishment e.g. Not wearing proper attires, lateness, chatting, failing to memorise a surat or forgetting equipment.

Certain way of dressing was enforced upon all children, who attend to the Madrassah, failure to ware the dressing code, which prescribed by teachers could result in some kind of punishment.

Attending to the Madrassah on time was also under obligation and failure to attend on time would have an avoidable banishment of whipping.

Many children found it very difficult to attend two schools every day; the French State School and Madrassah. Every other week some student attend State school in the mornings and then Madrassah in the afternoon whilst the others attend Madrassah in the morning and State school in the afternoon. As can be imagined, this was very tiring and stressful.

Working freely for the teachers was a duty to be performed twice or once every week, normally on Tuesday and Thursday. This task is called Yahowa, which could be translated as ‘paying teachers their dues’. The male children would work on the teacher's farm and girls would be responsible of the house chores including going to the farm and collecting pieces of woods, which would be used to light fire for cooking.

Children some times were finding too difficult to attend two schools everyday. Some days they may even require attending to the Shiyoni twice.

Most children would never get along with the Madrassah's supervisor, simply because they felt that they were more restrictive and pressured more than the teachers themselves. Generally speaking if any Comorian child were to be asked about his or her experiences of being in the Shiyoni, perhaps very few would have something cheerful to say about it. That is how the teaching in Madrassah used to be, however, thses days the system and the methodology of teaching in Madrassah has changed in many apects.

The teachings in Madrassah used to be always organized freely for all children to attend. But nowadays since economic necessities become more important to our lives, parent must pay both state schools and Madrassah. This is where life can get too complicated for most of families in Grande, as many families are relatively large with fewer resources. Many times the students themselves would have to pay these fees in assistance to their parents. They often have to do so by doing the odd job such as picking up food and materials from the farms (e.g. oranges, coconuts, bananas etc) to sell

Despite all challenges being in Shiyoni, a significant number of children succeeded extremely well in terms of being teachers, educators and leaders in religious affaires in the Village. The Children also enjoy a unique privilege and respect from many people in the Village, extraordinarily from the elderly. Some managed to further their education in many universities in Arab world, mainly in the Middle Eastern Countries.

Many Madarassah nowadays, however, became more moderate and restrictions became less important on the children. The majority of children are going to the Shiyoni voluntarily, unfortunately, many parents are unable afford fees for two types schooling due to the lack for cash.

There are at least two Madrassahs in the village and the neighboring villages would send their children to attend Madrassah in Selea and vice-versa.

The teaching in Shiyoni have played a major role in keeping their children in good in terms of respecting religious code of conduct, social norms, values and morals. Till the present time, Shiyoni remain a major institution among most of the Comorian families. The learning method in Shiyoni now is improving positively and it has a good reputation of storing high-quality of discipline on the children. Many grow up with fine etiquettes and good moral in their conducts.