Upon closer examination, the threat of Islamization seems to have been milder than anticipated, especially in the 2012/2013 curricula: In September 2012 Nahdet Masr publishers produced a second year preparatory Arabic language textbook with a cover illustration comprising a bearded older man with a young boy and girl. A media frenzy ensued with claims of “Islamization of education”. The book was not government-issued and, in response to the me dia furore, the publishing house’s director explained that the man’s beard in the illustration was meant only to evoke the teacher’s seniority and was not intended as a religious symbol intended, as critics were claiming, to win the favour of the new Islamist regime. [...] In January 2013 media outlets circulated reports of the removal of the picture of Egyptian feminist Dorriyya Shafq from the National Instruction curriculum for preparatory school . The alleged removal was on account of her being pictured without the hijab and also included recommendations for removing pictures of unveiled female students also in the text. It was revealed that no such changes had actually taken place [...] In March 2012 there emerged on social networking sites again a set of pictures from kindergarten Arabic language textbooks where the examples used to teach letters laam and Haa were liHya (beard) and Hijab (veil), respectively. It is not yet clear who the publisher of these books is, nor which school the textbooks were being used in. Nevertheless, they added to the list of evidence now being used in claims around the Islamization and ‘Brotherhoodization’ of education. [...] Finally, and more recently, in September 2013, after the fall of the Brotherhood regime, Ministry of Education officials announced that there were “signifcant violations” in the National Instruction curriculum for the third year of tertiary school (high-school).6[1] These included the addition of the ‘Rabaa’ sign in the curriculum. An adviser to the Minister of Education explained that the images were added in the layout and design phase of publications by the layout and designed team, which, according to our source, comprises several Islamist sympathizers. Quoted from a 2014-published report entitled: #NationalismAndHomogeneityInContemporaryCurricula by #EIPR.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 08:45:07 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015