The note examines the practical, andliterate skills that students acquire at different levels inWest African Koranic schools. It is a long-standing parallelsystem of education, yet, relatively unknown to developmentplaners, thus seldom taken into explicit account in theirpolicies, and strategies. Islamic educational systems havebeen present since the seventh century, and by the tenthcentury, communities of Muslim merchants, and scholars wereestablished in many commercial centers region wide. Thesystem of Islamic learning across West Africa isseveral-tiered, though less rigidly structured than itsWestern counterpart. Nonetheless, and despite a uniformitytendency toward underlying religious culture, and basicorientation, the nature and quality of instruction inKoranic schools, and the Islamic system as a whole, varytremendously from region to region. Given that understandingof Arabic - modern or classic - beyond the Koranic texts israre, the highest levels of practical literacy are mostfrequently found in areas where there is a developed systemfor transcribing African language with Arabic characters.The note concludes that basic Islamic instruction hasdimensions of practical application, i.e., it constitutes anintroduction to the technology of writing, and to a lesserextent, to numeracy; it is a training, as well as localleadership; and, has always been an avenue for social, andeconomic advancement.
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