The modernization of Islamic education in Nigeria

The main focus of the study is to show how Islamic education in Nigeria and Kano State can be integrated with Western-style education so as to fit into existing Nigerian educational structures to benefit the millions of Nigerian Muslims, especially women, who are living in its rural and urban areas. However, there are serious constraints that limit their effectiveness. Some of these constraints include access to higher education, and a discrimination of educational resources that has existed since the colonial period and still exists as evidenced in educational policies that are unfairly practiced in North Nigeria as compared to the South.;A comparison of educational levels of Muslims' educational access to schooling (primary, post primary, and tertiary levels) was conducted between Kano, Anambra and Oyo States, to show how Kano State lagged far behind in educational attainment, especially with regard to its Muslims, both male and female. The data were analyzed by using simple manual data processing as well as triangulation of the information gathered.;Findings. The study discusses the modernization of Islamic education in other Muslim countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, etc., all of whom offer Nigeria models for modernizing Islamic education. In the process, the study addresses educational imbalances in Nigerian educational system that have existed between female and male and between urban and rural areas, both before and after independence.;Furthermore, the majority of the people in Kano State believe that the modernization of Islamic education will provide Nigeria's citizens with new skills and a new direction in academic development. For example, 74.2% of the respondents believe that Koranic schools do not provide their children with sufficient education so as to prepare them to participate, economically, socially, and politically in Nigeria's affairs.;Nigerian Muslims have come to understand that it is only through the modernization of Islamic education that they can save themselves from the discrimination, domination, oppression, and humiliation created by Nigerian policy makers and politicians, who for a long time have neglected to provide the Muslims in Northern Nigeria, especially in Kano State, with adequate educational facilities.;Reform is possible because changes in Islamic education are possible, taking advantage of reforms that have occurred within both Islamic education and secular education elsewhere in the world and that can serve as a model for Nigeria's future.