National Curriculum - England
Research has shown that both Muslim and non-Muslim pupils in the UK need to have more positive coverage of Islam and the Muslim world through the schools system. These initial findings, including those aired by the PET working groups, show that both the National Curriculum and standard UK text books have 'gaps' in their coverage of the important Muslim contributions to world civilisation. FSTC is working with educational professionals and piloting projects to insert peer reviewed material concerning Muslim Science and Technology Heritage into these 'gaps', to produce a fuller view of the history of Science for schools. During the development stages of the Teachers' Pack for the 1001 inventions project, 14 major academic books in Key Stage 3 and 4 of the English National Curriculum were reviewed. None of them either acknowledged or mentioned the key scientific discoveries made by the Muslims. This, consequently, contributes to the negative understanding of Islam and Muslims in our society. FSTC is now working with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and the Association for Science Education (ASE) on projects such as Cultural Understanding in Science Project (CUSP) to enrich the national Curriculum and to furnish it with a more fair and balanced view of the Muslim contributions to science, technology and civilisation. This is undertaken by a variety of means; feedback is gathered from teachers who have used the 1001 inventions teacher's pack while FSTC works closely with experienced educational consultants and school teachers from The British Association for the Advancement of Science (the BA) and The School Development Support Agency (SDSA). The teacher's pack is under constant development. A film has been produced entitled City 1250 for students who undertake a project involving a virtual journey to a Muslim city in the year 1250. FSTC is also engaged in a project (STEM) in collaboration with STEMNET, the DfES and the DTI (OST), to develop a national campaign to encourage schools to set up special projects for BME's children to take up STEM subjects. A special section is now set up within FSTC to focus on curriculum issues at the international level. A galaxy of educational experts have been recruited to work with our content providers making this provision unique and ground breaking.
by: FSTC Limited, Sat 15 November, 2008
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