Weekend Islamic schools in Europe: Challenges and means of development

Abstract

Many educational centers for instructing Muslim children in the principles of Islam and the Arabic language have been established in Europe. These centers are called weekend schools; students attend these schools on the weekend to learn the Holy Qur’an in addition to Arabic language skills. The current study aimed to examine the nature of these schools and their instructional focuses. The study used a qualitative method for data collection and conducted interviews based on semi-open questions. A total of 26 participants were interviewed during the Annual Conference of the Islamic Organization Union in France in 2012. The results indicate that there is no detailed database that shows the total number or overall percentage of Muslim students who attend weekend schools in Europe. The results also show that the rate of enrollment is increasing. The results of the study confirm that most of the students are primary school students who attend these schools for only 3 to 4 hours every week. The findings show that these weekend schools face several challenges. The most important of these challenges are the weak qualifications of the teachers, inadequate curriculum, an inconvenient instructional environment, and other challenges that will be covered in this research. The researcher argues that the efforts exerted by mosques and Islamic centers to maintain the identity represented in the supplementary schools and classes called weekend schools are insufficient due to the numerous challenges that these schools are facing.