Crisis in Minnesota Dugsi; Privatization is the Solution
Many people hail Minnesota as the ‘Capital of the Quran’ in the Western World.This is due to the number of students who won top places in the Regional and international Quran Competitions .The number of high-quality dugsi or madrassas, quality teachers, and the general support by its community, primarily the Somali community known for their love and enthusiasm for the Quran and the people of the Quran.
Despite the success and achievements of our dugsis here in Minnesota, they are dealing with immense obstacles that hinder their development and progress.The biggest problem is the number of experienced Quran teachers who are ‘forced to leave the profession.’This problem has always been going on, but it has worsened since the pandemic’s beginning. To understand what is causing or forcing these teachers to exit the profession, we look at the history of Quran teaching in Somalia.
In Somali culture, the teacher of the Quran has always been independent in choosing his students, place of learning, methods of teaching, and managing the affairs of his dugsi or malcamad( another word for dugsi). This freedom of operating the dugsi put the Quran teacher in a position to make his own decisions and maintain his livelihood through the teaching of the Quran without the bureaucracy and complexity of large institutions.
Fast forward to dugsi history in Minnesota. According to people I talked to, they have informed me that dugsi started here in the late 90s and early 2000s with volunteers. These volunteers would go to apartments with Somali families and ask them to allow their children to come with them so they could learn hingaad and the Quran. These volunteers were brothers and sisters who used their vehicles(vans mostly) to pick up those children from their homes and take them to the mosque or basements of homes. These volunteers laid the foundation for the dugsi we have today.Some of these volunteers passed away, some still are in Minnesota, and others went back to Somalia. May Allah reward them for their efforts in establishing these centers.
Those days in the late 90s and early 2000s, the community’s goal was not to produce students who memorized the Quran or students who won competitions but to teach those children few chapters of the Quran. Alhamdulillah, after 20 years, they are students as young as fifteen years old participating in a Qira’at competition. These achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the effort and sacrifice of many Quran teachers. We as a community need to acknowledge their efforts and give them the respect they deserve, which is long overdue.
Let us look at what is forcing these teachers to leave the profession. They are several problems, but we will look; at low pay, poor leadership, and a hostile environment. The majority of teachers, if not all, are paid way less than even the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour; they are not paid on time.Their payday and amount depend on the amount of fees submitted by the parents for that month.Imagine those teachers have to support their families, send money home, and on top of that they buy their students prizes and gifts to encourage and motivate.
We expect these teachers to show up for their students on time every day and do their best.I know some teachers who work two jobs to support their families. This issue worsened during the pandemic when many dugsi moved to online learning with no plans or resources to offer online classes to students or even pay teachers. This led to an exodus of many teachers who moved on to other jobs leaving many students with no classrooms to learn.The gap left behind by these experienced teachers is huge and the impact will be felt in many years.
The second issue is the poor leadership of our dugsis. The majority of our dugsis are under the supervision of individuals who demonstrate behaviors such as bias, disrespect, lack of accountability, lack of vision, and lack of skills to manage and develop these institutions. We had the same individuals running these institutions for more than a decade. They have been nothing but a problem and challenge to the prosperity of the dugsis. These poor leaders’ leadership created hostile and toxic environments, which led to frustrations, anger, and conflict between different parties of our dugsi and forced many teachers to quit.
I am sure they are leaders who are trying their best to lead their dugsis in the right direction. We appreciate it, but most of them do not understand the complexity of the problem and are losing out on an excellent opportunity to find solutions to this problem. I plead with them to sit down with their teachers, parents, and community to find a way to retain our teachers before it is too late.
Many teachers advocate for a new system where teachers can manage their classes, enroll students, create a waiting list and curriculum, deal with parents, and decide their classrooms’ fees and tuition structure. This system gives teachers the space and freedom to be more creative, produce more well-rounded students, and the financial freedom they desperately need. Teachers can hire assistants or work with like-minded teachers to make their classrooms more successful. This might seem an enormous task for a teacher, but it has proven so far to be working for many teachers. In the coming years, things will get better, more teachers might be willing to become private classrooms and improve their situations.
Finally, the teachers are not blame-free, but this article’s goal has been to highlight what I believe is the problem causing an alarming number of our Quran teachers to leave this noble profession and a possible solution to the challenge. I will leave you with a hadith of the Prophet saw.
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The best among you (Muslims) are those who learn the Qur’an and teach it.”
