Comoros Religion and Education
Grand mosque, Nzwani
Courtesy Brian Kensley
Islam and its institutions help to integrate Comoran
society
and provide an identification with a world beyond the
islands'
shores. As Sunni Muslims, the people follow religious
observances
conscientiously and strictly adhere to religious
orthodoxy.
During the period of colonization, the French did not
attempt to
supplant Islamic customs and practices and were careful to
respect the precedents of Islamic law as interpreted by
the
Shafii school (one of the four major legal schools in
Sunni
Islam, named after Muhammad ibn Idris ash Shafii, it
stresses
reasoning by analogy). Hundreds of mosques dot the
islands.
Practically all children attend Quranic school for two
or
three years, starting around age five; there they learn
the
rudiments of the Islamic faith and some classical Arabic.
When
rural children attend these schools, they sometimes move
away
from home and help the teacher work his land.
France established a system of primary and secondary
schools
based on the French model, which remains largely in place.
Comoran law requires all children to complete eight years
of
schooling between the ages of seven and fifteen. The
system
provides six years of primary education for students ages
six to
twelve, followed by seven years of secondary school. In
recent
years, enrollment has expanded greatly, particularly at
the
primary level. About 20,750 pupils, or roughly 75 percent
of
primary-school-age children were enrolled in 1993, up from
about
46 percent in the late 1970s. About 17 percent of the
secondaryschool -age population was enrolled, up from an estimated 7
percent fifteen to twenty years earlier. Teacher-student
ratios
also improved, from 47:1 to 36:1 in the primary schools
and from
26:1 to 25:1 in secondary schools. The increased
attendance was
all the more significant given the population's high
percentage
of school-age children. Improvement in educational
facilities was
funded in 1993 by loans from the Organization of the
Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the African Development
Bank.
Despite the spread of education, adult literacy in 1993
has been
estimated at no better than 50 percent.
Comoros has no university but post-secondary education,
which
in 1993 involved 400 students, is available in the form of
teacher training, agricultural education training, health
sciences, and business. Those desiring higher education
must
study abroad; a "brain drain" has resulted because few
university
graduates are willing to return to the islands. Teacher
training
and other specialized courses are available at the M'Vouni
School
for Higher Education, in operation since 1981 at a site
near
Moroni. Few Comoran teachers study overseas, but the
republic
often cannot give its teachers all the training they need.
Some
international aid has been provided, however, to further
teacher
training in the islands themselves. For example, in 1987
the IDA
extended credits worth US$7.9 million to train 3,000
primary and
350 secondary school teachers. In 1986 the government
began
opening technology training centers offering a three-year
diploma
program at the upper secondary level. The Ministry of
National
Education and Professional Training is responsible for
education
policy.
As elsewhere in Comoran society, political instability
has
taken a toll on the education system. Routinely announced
reductions in force among the civil service, often made in
response to international pressure for fiscal reform,
sometimes
result in teacher strikes. When civil service cutbacks
result in
canceled classes or examinations, students have at times
taken to
the streets in protest. Students have also protested, even
violently, against government underfunding or general
mismanagement of the schools--the World Bank stated in
1994 that
the quality of education resulted in high rates of
repetition and
dropouts such that the average student needed fourteen
years to
complete the six-year primary cycle.
Data as of August 1994
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