The new academic year is approaching and it means that the issue of obtaining higher education, including religious one, is becoming more and more essential. Rafik Mukhametshin, a member of the Group of Strategic Vision “Russia – Islamic World”, Deputy Mufti of Tatarstan for Education, Chairman of the Council on Islamic Education of Russia, Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute, told during the conference about the innovations in the activities of the Council on Islamic Education and about the reasons of why the standardization of obtaining religious education is needed.
Standards of Islamic education in Russia
Today, the multilevel system of Islamic education in Russia is a complex structure of religious enlightenment of population: mosque courses, madrasahs, the Russian Islamic Institute in Kazan and other institutions of higher Islamic education in the regions of Russia and the Bulgarian Islamic Academy.
“I can say with confidence that about 38 Muslim institutions out of 82, which operate in the territory of the Russian Federation, are the part of the Council on Islamic Education and each of them has a license to provide educational services. As far as Tatarstan is concerned, it is one of the regions where Muslim educational institutions work at a rather high level in accordance with the accepted standards”, - Chairman of the Council on Islamic Education Rafik Mukhametshin highlighted.
It was Kazan where in 2015 those standards were developed. Today they help to control quality of Muslim education in Russia. Before the standards were formed (which, by the way, touch upon not only requirements for the teaching staff but also peculiarities of teaching certain subjects), painstaking analytical and organizational work had been carried out, including study of the experience of existing and previously functioning madrasahs. Moreover, it was the first experience of standardization.
“Today all these standards work and even sets of textbooks have been prepared. I am of the opinion that directly via the realization of such standards one can reach and adhere to the definition of Imam’s competencies”.
Nowadays, these standards have been implemented primarily in the territory of the Tatarstan Republic.
“We should understand that the state cannot control quality of religious education. They are teachers who are in charge of it. That is why it is very important to have some mechanisms for monitoring compliance of standards”, - Rafik Mukhametshin assured journalists.
Special attention should be paid to the issue of availability of textbooks, including classic works with comments.
“The reasonable question arises: who to rely on, what should be modern textbooks, for instance, on Islamic Law (and this is one of the key subjects in Islamic educational institutions). At the same time, we should not forget that about 20% of subjects are secular sciences. And it should not be surprising because we must not forget about the fact that, for example, in madrasahs we have the task to train religious figures within 3 years. But nobody denies the fact that a madrasah is a place where the Tatar intelligentsia is formed, without which it is complicated to imagine the development of ummah”.
We would like to remind that on 29 July, a regular session of the Council on Islamic Education was held, in the framework of which there was made a decision not just systematize the activities of Islamic educational institutions but also to make their work as transparent as possible.
“We paid special attention to the issue of adaptation among young people who study abroad to the Russian realities. I am talking about such concepts as “patriotism”, “nation”, studying and understanding of Islam in Russia. They are those things, which should be spoken about not only in the framework of certain subjects but which also should be introduced into existing classes. For instance, teachers can cite the example of hadiths, in which Prophet Muhammad speaks about the importance of love towards your people and country. Our students should know who Muslims of the Russian Federation are, how Islam appeared in our country, what its peculiarities are, how national, religious, linguistic identities are formed, which, I would like to highlight, are closely connected with each other. We should make our students proud of their heritage”.
But what is the Council on Islamic Education of Russia? This organization is primarily aimed at the introduction of the Muslim education system into a single educational space. The non-commercial partnership “Council of Islamic Education” was established on 10 March in 2010. It is headed by Rafik Mukhametshin. Among the objectives of the Council there is to ensure all the necessary conditions for citizens of Russia for the realization of their right to get education and to meet the needs of the state and society for specialists in theological, religious and other fields of training; to coordinate the activities of various organizations implementing programmes of religious education; to develop and approve uniform standards in various areas of Islamic theological, religious and other education; to develop and approve model programmes and curricula for religious disciplines, which are taught in Islamic theological, spiritual and other educational institutions and also to prepare scientific, religious and educational literature for the publication, and much more.
Targeted education and Al-Azhar
Now the Council is in a new phase of its activities. In addition to it, the website muslimmedia.ru has been launched, where one can find educational materials and lections. Interestingly, this year the Council on Islamic Education is planning to launch a new project – targeted education of students in the Russian Islamic Institute.
“What is targeted education? The spiritual administration selects and recommends a certain number of students. Contracts are made with them. At the end of their three-year education these young people become imams of mosques in rural areas (mosques within the urban area are fully staffed with religious workers). The graduates will receive grants for some time. I would like to highlight that it is a nationwide project, a federal one. We will test it in Tatarstan and Chechnya and we will try to recruit about 10 people. This kind of approach will help us to know the people who will study in detail”.
The students of this year will have been determined by the end of August – after the admission campaign to the Russian Islamic Institute will be over. The Council on Islamic Education of Russia will implement the project with the support of the Foundation for Islamic Science, Culture and Education.
One cannot but note the progress in the field of interaction with foreign educational institutions. First of all, this is the Al-Azhar University, with which the contract was signed two years ago. According to it, students are now admitted there only under the direction of the Council on Islamic Education. As Mukhametshin pointed out, previously Russian students, regardless of the already existing religious education, were only admitted to the preparatory faculty, where they took exams for two years. Now, Russian applicants are admitted to the first year of their bachelor's degree.
“Moreover, at the present time we are negotiating to combine our bachelor’s programmes, so that our graduates will be able to enter the master’s programme at once”, - Rafik Mukhametshin noted.
Of course, the competition in the market of educational conditions is tremendous. It is enough to turn to the figures: if one Islamic educational institution spends about 100-120 million rubles a year, then at the expense of contractual forms of education the budget of the organization gets about 15 million rubles. The rest of the funding comes from the Foundation of Islamic Science, Culture and Education, from the available resources of the Spiritual Administration.
The photo: The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Tatarstan Republic
Ilmira Gafiyatullina