ANALYSIS: Education is the biggest gap between Muslims, Christians

Younger Muslims making inroads

But all is not lost say the Pew researchers. All around the world, Muslims have made substantial gains in educational attainment.

Over the three generations in this study, they have gained an average of 3.1 more years of schooling with the youngest Muslims having on average, 6.7 years of schooling, as compared with the oldest, who have 3.5 years of schooling.

Still, the largest gains in average years of schooling have been in the Middle East and North Africa. In those regions, Muslims have gained 4.5 years of schooling across generations, from an average of 3.2 years among the oldest Muslims to 7.6 years among the youngest.

Over the same time period, the share of Muslims with no formal schooling has decreased considerably, from 54% in the oldest generation of Muslims in the study to 28% in the youngest.

Again, the largest decreases in the share of Muslims with no formal schooling were in the Middle East and North Africa, where 67% of the oldest Muslims lack any formal schooling, compared with 26% of the youngest.

The share of Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa with no formal schooling dropped by 22 percentage points, but a majority of the youngest Muslims in that region (57%) still lack even a primary education.

The share of Muslims with a post-secondary education has grown in recent generations, albeit more modestly, rising from 4% of the oldest Muslims in the study to 10% of the youngest. Even in countries where Muslims are a minority, like Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa, they have also attained more formal education than Christians in relation to their population size.

Going forward, Cucu says the Uganda Supreme Council is trying to profile all Muslim-founded schools across the country right from the village to the regional level to understand the needs of these schools.

At the moment, there are 1,350 primary schools, 300 secondary schools, and four Muslim-affiliated universities, he says.

“We are also trying to work with the government to make sure that teachers who teach Islam can be put on the payroll just like those teachers who teach Christian Religious Education.”

Until now, the argument against teachers of Islam has been that they are not professional teachers. However, Islam is not a subject in any teacher training college in Uganda.

The Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, the top body of most Muslims in Uganda, has also come up with an Islamic Education curriculum for all Muslim-founded schools around the country. Such measures will, hopefully, undo the historical injustice of over 100 years.

“We are late but they say, better late than never. We have the optimism that one day things will be corrected,” Cucu says.

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editor@independent.co.ug