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Fading job prospects for madrassa students
Headhunters say in today’s job market, madrassa graduates are at a disadvantage.
Headhunters say that in today’s job market, madrassa graduates, who lack social skills and insist on rigid dress codes, are at a disadvantage. DESIGN: ANAM HALEEM
ISLAMABAD:
“When I graduate, I will look for a placement at a university abroad and further my religious education,” says 20-year-old Abid Farooq. Originally from Mansehra, Farooq attended school in Karachi and became a hafiz, and then enrolled in a madrassa in Islamabad to study as an aalim.
Farooq says his friends have similar plans. Many madrassa have started offering Arabic classes to give graduates like Farooq more options. They might find work as businessmen or traders, besides Islamic scholars, in Middle Eastern countries.
But the question of how many opportunities are available to those with a religious education is hard to answer. Pakistan is struggling to deal with unemployment, with the jobless rate estimated to be anywhere between 5.6 per cent and 34 per cent.
The managements of madrassa believe it is unfair to say that they are fuelling unemployment or their graduates are unemployable, given that university graduates can’t find jobs either.
Headhunters do not believe the graduates of madrassa or schools, which focus on an extensive religious education (such as the Iqra Islamic School chain), can be competitive in the job market.
“Graduates from madrassa are at a significant disadvantage when entering the job market compared to their peers from conventional schools,” said Monis Rehman, the CEO of Naseeb Networks, which also runs the jobs website Rozee.pk. “There is a prevalent perception that madrassa graduates lack fundamental mathematics, computer and comprehension skills.”
Naveed Khan, the head of the recruitment agency PeopleTM’s Executive Search Department said: “While parents may be fine with sending their children to schools like Iqra, where they can become a hafiz and study other subjects too, what kind of academic or social skills do Iqra’s graduates have? I am not sure if the quality of education can be compared to schools such as Beaconhouse, City or Lyceum.”
Madrassas and Islamic schools that have introduced classes in Arabic, computers and media management have garnered interest from students.
Female graduates often become teachers at madrassas and schools. “Our girls manage to stand on their own feet,” says Umme Hassan, who runs a number of madrassas for women – including Jamia Hafsa in the federal capital and its outskirts.
However, employers do not directly recruit from her madrassa. Umme Hassan told The Express Tribune: “We do not enter into any agreements with people for jobs because we often do not know how many girls will stay back to work or go to their homes where they will get married. Maybe their parents have arranged jobs for them as teachers at a school.”
Khan of PeopleTM says five to six per cent of the candidates they receive are from madrassas or Islamic schools. However, it is a challenge to place them because of concerns that they do not have social skills or will enforce their religious beliefs on others.
“I’ve interviewed candidates who said they can’t wear a tie because it’s in the shape of the cross. These students have not studied in a co-educational environment and are hesitant to work with members of the opposite sex. How can we place them in top-tier companies?”
Madrassa graduates say they face “discrimination and stereotyping” when applying for jobs. A graduate recalls being asked during a job interview at a newspaper whether he would be comfortable interviewing Reema, instead of his educational qualifications.
Monis Rehman believes these graduates will “definitely face discrimination” at the workplace. “There is a also an apprehension, perhaps unfairly, that madrassa graduates will have a reduced focus and demand frequent extended leaves for tableegh-related activities at the expense of work assignments,” he said.
“Society must accept the contribution of madrassas,” says Wakil Ahmed Khan, the chairperson of the Pakistan Madrassa Education Board. “They have become a dumping place for the poor who cannot afford to educate and clothe their children. The madrassa have provided thousands with boarding and lodging and give them stipends. The public and private sectors need to work together for this.”
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2011.
Reader Comments (15)
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1970- A chicken in every pot and tiger in every tank.
2011- A chicken in every pot and a terrorist in every mosqueRecommend
Madrassas need to be phased out, and the children who go to them put in proper schools. The only way forward, as far as I can see, is to push for education across the board. I know this is a really tall order, but there’s no other way I see forward except with political pressure on the government to properly educate all the kids in Pakistan. Again, tall order, but no ther way forward.Recommend
who would want to destroy their organisation by employing these brutes??
They destroy the office environment as they seek to actively impose their warped,hateful beliefs on everyone else,what sort of clothes the female colleagues can wear,who performs dogmatic religious rituals & who doesn’t ,who says “khuda hafiz” instead of “Allah hafiz”.
These people lead to the destruction of office morale & hurt organisational productivity.Recommend
Places which are dumbing people out and transforming them into fanatical killers something we do not need.Recommend
Maderssah students have lot of options available to them:
Become a trader
Become a imam, muezzin, and teacher
Become a carpenter, plumber, electrician, mason, mechanic, welder
Become a typist, delivery man
Become a farmer, fisherman
Become a tailor
Become a factory worker, packer
This article assumes everyone wants to update excel spreadsheets in an air conditioned room of big companies instead of creating and providing something tangible to community.
As for tableegh related activities, it is not that they are asking paid leaves.Recommend
It was maderssah where the following scholars came from:
Ibn-al-Haytam
Al-Khwarizmi
Al-Jazari
Ibn-Sina
Ibn Nafis
At-Tusi
Al-Idrisi
Ibn Battuta
Sinan
I don’t think sending students to over-priced institutions where knowledge is crammed in, taught for money and its sole purpose is profit maximization at the cost of human suffering lies the answer to current world problems. Here are the following subjects and their failures:
Economics (All economies of the world are under debt, defaulting one by one, Keynesian failure)
Health (Poor people cant afford any walled gardens of patent medicines, over priced hospitals and vulture insurance companies)
Politics (Bribing is called lobbying, lying is acceptable, )
Commerce (Everything should be priced in dollars)
Science (GM Foods, Cellular radiation, chemical pollution, Patented discoveries all in name of profits)
Finance (Derivatives, CDS, Fiat currency, Fractional Reserves and Usurious Institutions like IMF WB IFC)
Do we really need this type of future for our kids?Recommend
The comment of Wakil Ahmed Khan, the chairperson of the Pakistan Madrassa Education Board is very valid- that Madrassas have looked after thousands. As long as parents have no employment opportunities to feed and educate their children, they will be compelled to send their children to madrassas where they will at least get education, food, clothing and a roof over their head…..but ever since the Afghan war, some madrassas were used to create suicide bombers, which continues to the present day. The state must provide parents alternative oppurtunities for their children’s education, clothing, food and shelter. Funding for this could come from the defence budget…..a well rounded education for our children is important for the defence of Pakistan.Recommend
Mudarassa education need transformation. Not western but should be thoughtful of internal issues. Unfortunately illiterate mullahs are incapable of doing so.Recommend
@Muhammad:
I don’t think any transformation is needed in internal issues:
Economy:
Islamic Scholars: No interest based economy.
Finance:
Islamic Scholars: Banks to be used for society development.
Law & Order:
Islamic Scholars: Shariah courts for speedy justice.
Corruption:
Islamic Scholars: Thief to lose one hand
Vice:
Islamic Scholars: Make marriage easy and early
Education:
Islamic Scholars: Free and accessible to everyone
What needs transformation is the political system.Recommend
I was reading this article and thoughts were spinning in my head–why not add to the Madrassa education rather than keeping it as is or doing away with it?
It was pointed out that they’re lacking in “…fundamental mathematics, computer and comprehension skills.” So the simplest solution would be to add and strengthen these areas. There’s a concern of a lack of “social skills or will enforce their religious beliefs on others.” Again, simplest way for this issue is to educate them in this area. Forcing religious beliefs (regardless of what a person believes–Christianity, Muslim, or whatever ) on anyone is a sensitive issue and can be done in a way that’s not “forceable”–it should be a lifestyle, a personal example, and being open and understanding and respectful to others’ beliefs. Someone does not have to compromise their belief system when going into a workforce, but going in with an open mind and understand the workplace environment, you’ll find that the workplace will be (should be) accommodating.
An idea to introducing a working relationship between the students and the “corporate companies” would be setting up an internship with companies with the madrassa students before graduating gives them the opportunity to see how the work environment is–giving them experience, understanding, and exposure to what they’ll be expecting.
Educate the “illiterate mullahs” who will turn around and properly educate the madrassa students who will graduate with a better education….Recommend
Goverment should create opportunities for these sort of students by taking madrassas under its control, provide them quality education in both religious and modren day knowledge..Here in Saudi Arabia , everything is under goverment control and no has these sort of issues regarding their futures.
Any some of the comments from our brothers and sisters regarding religious education are just absurd and painful for anyone having love with Islam.Recommend
What do you mean by an interest free economy in the first place? Money is a unit of wealth and when inflation is a reality, there is a time value for money. Or else go back to the gold standard where a group of Australian and South African companies will dictate the money supply and deflation will kill all industrial activity. What might have worked in a 5th century Arabian hamlet will not work in the global economy of the 21st century.Btw what happened to the gold Dinar of Malaysia?Recommend
i dont get the point of bringing up the iqra school system because in a place where people with graduate degrees can’t get jobs, how can you expect school graduates to get jobs?Recommend
I don’t seem to understand the reason / rationale behind this article. These are imaginations of abused and biased minds. What do HR consultants know about the status of a Hafiz or an Aalim. Its like a metric fail commenting/criticizing a neurologist or a chartered accountant.
As a matter of fact, the Huffaz doing Hifz from any madressah are as good a student as anyone else. I personally know lots of Huffaz who are qualified chartered accountants, engineers and doctors. Secondly, if we talk about an Aalim or a Mufti searching for an accountant’s job than I dont think they have a good chance. They are not taught to become doctors or accountants. They have ample opportunities of earning livelihood. I have many friends who are Aalims and Muftis and they are doing great with earning either through jobs or business.Recommend
@Cherish Raj:
Interest only move money from people to few hands in the society and it collapse after few decades.
Inflation is due to fiat currency we have instead of currency backed by precious metal ideally. The concept is nothing new, in late antiquity Rome coated base metals with precious metal to boost the money supply which eventually led to collapse of Roman society.
In gold terms everything cost same as in times of Roman Empire.
As for fallacy of it not working in 21st century can you explain why central banks are buying tons of gold recently?
Malaysian gold dinar is going fine, US state Utah are moving to gold standard and others are considering their own money.Recommend