The Bari School in Pakistan, established in 2009, identified that the children even after reading the full Holy Quran do not completely develop an understanding of the Quran’s message primarily because Arabic is not their mother tongue. They put in an extraordinary effort and adopted an innovative approach and resultantly achieved a remarkable standard of learning & understanding of the Holy Quran by secondary school children.
The approach involves a two-phase methodology: Nazra (recitation) until Grade 4, followed by research-based study from Grade 5 onwards till Grade 8.
In this methodology, students are assigned to read the entire Quran and search for relevant verses regarding the assigned topic in their own time. The role of a teacher in this process is to explain and guide the students about the selected verses on the given topic as per the weekly programme in the school.
During these four years, about 25-30 topics are researched by students. It means that the children go through the entire Holy Quran about 25-30 times during those four years and almost learn its translation by heart and develop a good understanding of the Quran’s message about every facet of life.
The Ugama system in Brunei Darussalam is a comprehensive programme for religious education that is very well structured & could be adopted by Pakistan for its obvious advantages.
Meanwhile, the research-based methodology, to learn & understand the Holy Quran, could be very conveniently integrated within the Ugama Programme in Brunei, which is believed will make the Ugama programme even more comprehensive.
The graduates of Bari School, well equipped with the teachings and message of the Quran, after completing their professional education from various professional colleges have excelled in different fields later in their careers. Likewise, if this methodology is adopted by the existing Ugama programme in Brunei Darussalam then it has the potential to transform the lives of children and after about a decade, the children graduating from all Bruneian schools would be equipped with a thorough understanding of the Holy Quran.
