BETWEEN SECULAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND QUR'ANIC PRIVATE SCHOOLS: THE GROWING EDUCATIONAL PRESENCE OF MALIAN MEDERSAS

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Notes

1. This study was conducted by the USAID/PHARE program in collaboration with the Directorate of Fundamental Education (DNEF) of the Malian Ministry of Education, Alphabetisation, and National Languages (MEALN) and in collaboration with the National Directorate of Pedagogy (previously the National Center for Education). The study was completed, thanks to the participation of the regional and district MEALN offices where the research took place, as well as the directors and teachers in the medersas in the sample. The study was conducted with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Contract no: IQC #EDH-I-00-05-00031-00, Order no: EDH-I-03-05-00031. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USAID or of the government of the United States.

2. The author of this article led the research and instrument design for the above-referenced medersa study and was the lead writer of the 2010 research report for the project, entitled “The Medersas of Mali: Organization, Administration and Pedagogy.”

3. Albeit a small and under-resourced section.

4. Transportation was challenging in Mali, even for local data collectors, and there was some conflict in the north at the time of the study

5. Alternates were selected in anticipation of some gaps in the MEALN records regarding schools that moved or closed; likewise, we did not assume all selected medersas would be willing to participate in the study.

6. The project had 9 research teams for a total of 18 data collectors. All data collectors spoke, read, and wrote Arabic fluently, had solid written and oral French skills and spoke Bambara—a national lingua franca in Mali, in addition to one other local language. Most had prior research experience (although minimal) and some background in education. All were rigorously trained by the project for the data collection.

7. A few of the schools were girls only or boys only.

8. They were at times one and the same person.

9. Medersas do charge school fees; while they serve low-income families, it is unlikely that they are serving the poorest of the poor who would not be able to afford school fees in addition to the other basic costs of sending children to school (i.e. uniforms or smocks and school supplies).

10. All in all, of the 98 directors, only 2 mentioned exterior donors that were not a part of the Malian expatriate community in France: the Libyan Association for the Worldwide Call to Islam and Saudi Arabia. In the case of the latter, the contribution (to build a classroom) most likely came from a charitable organization or an individual donor in Saudi Arabia. Many Malian ‘ulema study in Saudi Arabia so there are connections between the two countries.

11. The lack of separate toilets for female teachers could in part account for the low numbers of female teachers in the medersas.

12. There was nowhere near a one-to-one (ideal) or even two-to-one ratio of pupil to textbook.

13. Between one and three teachers per school (242 in total) participated directly in the study via a questionnaire and/or an interview.

14. Each class was observed by two researchers who scored the lesson, compared scores, and came to an agreement on the presence or absence of each item according to the observation criteria. The observational data constituted a “snapshot” in time of medersa teaching.

15. Pupils are commonly gender segregated in medersa classrooms (seated in gender groups) so the observers were looking at whether both genders had a clear view of the blackboard, were able to see and hear the teacher, were not in excessive shadows or excessive sunlight, and were not all in the back of the room or the front of the room.

16. Classroom space is sometimes very small and filled with pupil desks and benches, limiting the teacher's ability to circulate within the classroom.

Additional information

Helen N. Boyle, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and the Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development at Florida State University. Dr. Boyle conducts research on education in developing country contexts, with a particular focus on Islamic educational institutions in North and West Africa. She has 20 years of experience in the field of international development education and has provided technical assistance to education projects in the Middle East and Africa.