14 - Religious Education as Locus of Curriculum: A Brief Inquiry into Madrasah Curriculum in Singapore

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In the context of Singapore, the madrasah has been understood as a religious school or religious educational institution, be it at the preparatory (kindergarten) stage, primary, secondary or post-secondary levels. The madrasah has therefore been expected to offer a curriculum which focuses on religious subjects to stay true to its sanctity as a religious institution. Such curricular content for the madrasah has been construed by many Muslims to be sound and logical to producing Muslim religious elites and its key educational objective. However, the issue of curriculum content of madrasahs in Singapore has been receiving public and national leaders’ attention since the 1980s as a result of their less than satisfactory academic performance compared to that of national schools in the annual national examinations.

There has been a growing concern over the madrasah's peripheral position in the overall scheme of national development and economic progress. Scores of public forums and discourses took place within and amongst the madrasah fraternity, religious elites, interested individuals and organizations on the future and survival of madrasahs, particularly soon after the political leaders’ announcement of the introduction of compulsory education for the six madrasahs. Out of such flurry of opinionated exchanges and public engagements are demands for more reforms along the line of national schools’ curriculum, much to the traditionalists’ discontent. The traditional camp argues that such reforms could blur the very basis of madrasah's existence as the repository of religious education and erode its religious character. The articulations between contending parties, including those who are neutral but whose interest lies in the continued existence of madrasahs in whatever form, posit varied concerns. These range from the quality of teaching and learning in madrasahs, infrastructures and support structure or the lack of it and archaic pedagogy, to alleged socio-political engineering that could lead to the madrasahs’ exit from the Singapore educational landscape. Putting all the pieces of arguments and articulations together as one whole, one realizes that the curriculum of the madrasah becomes the focal point of interest. While much effort is on the way to reformulate the madrasah curriculum in the context of the ever-changing and borderless world, there is a need to understand the underlying philosophical and socio-religious make-up of the early curriculum planners and the social context of their planning.