2.1 Major Problems and Challenges

Following our analysis which focused on the determinants and models of parental education in Muslim countries, we can retain three fundamental problems in which we find more the specificities of big challenges and stand in the way of this education, and thus ask for enough attention :

2.1.1 The Problem of Poverty and Underdevelopment

Actually, the scarcity of financial means or their inexistence and the fall in the living standards of the majority of social strata in Muslim societies are all factors that hinder parental education and render it weak, with unsteady goals and objectives and limited results and outcomes. As I have emphasised earlier, there is a strong link between the economic level of the parents and their educational practice. Whenever this level is high, there is a large degree of the parents' flexibility, tolerance and democracy in their educational practices. However, whenever this level is or tends to be low, the methods that resort to strictness and harshness and are shaped either by severe punishment or by big neglect are prevalent in these practices. On the strength of this, I may say that the different aspects of poverty and underdevelopment which the majority of social strata in the Muslim countries suffer from will certainly have negative effects on the educational practices of the parents coming from these strata. These negative effects may, on the one hand, take the form of educational patterns and methods that vary in the hands of some parents from authoritarianism to anarchy or oscillate between the two extremes; and may on the other hand, be reflected in results that vary from inferiority complex to revolt or vacillate between the two as far as children are concerned. It is this fact which makes of them one of the big challenges that the Muslim countries cannot meet except by eradicating one of their major causes, namely poverty and the very bad living conditions of the majority of the social strata of which Muslim societies are composed.

2.1.2 The Problem of Illiteracy and Ignorance

Undoubtedly, parental educational practices are influenced by the intellectual and cultural level that prevail in their social environments. Of course, ignorance checks the effectiveness of these practices and reduces the number of the interventions of the parents; it, indeed, prevents the latter from following the development and progress of society. As has been mentioned earlier, the cultural level in general and the educational one in particular are considered as the factor that mostly influences parental, educational practices; for whenever these levels are high or average at least, the practices tend to lead to more democratic, flexible and tolerant attitudes toward children. But whenever they are low the practices lead either to authoritarianism, strictness and harshness or to anarchy, neglect and carelessness. If everybody is aware of the fact that a large number of social groups and layers within the Muslim countries are still oppressed by rampant illiteracy and defaming ignorance to the extent that it is not necessary to give any specific percentage here, this implies that the parental education practised in these environments will certainly "be negatively influenced by this evil which, in spite of all the efforts that have been made on the level of uprooting it either through compulsory education or through parallel programs for the eradication of illiteracy in Muslim countries and not in all of them, its size will, according to some forecasts, double at the turn of the year 2000" (The UNESCO Office 1988, p.24).

Therefore, the spread of this evil will result in the increase in the number and the widening of the basis of the wrong practices which vary from models of weak practices characterised by neglect, anarchy and permissiveness to models of rigorous practices which resort to harshness, strictness and punishment. These models have a negative impact on the development and adaptation of a child, which is reflected, on the one hand, in his lack of the components of an undisturbed personality capable of appropriate adaptation and the confrontation of life's problems and, on the other hand, in having a weak personality - lacking in self-confidence and unable to adapt, acquire knowledge and confront life's problems.

Actually, the eradication of illiteracy and the ignorance associated with it - which are the main cause of these practices and their negative effects - constitute, in my opinion, the second major challenge that confronts the Muslim countries. It is in putting an end to this problem through various means and projects that lies the best way to guide the aforementioned groups and sections toward flexible educational practices, characterised by acceptance instead of rejection, attention instead of neglect, flexibility instead of rigidity, namely practices that are governed by methods of control, communication and supervision.

2.1.3 The Problem of the Shrinkage of the Role of the Family

It is obvious that parental education in the Muslim countries, like its counterparts all over the world, is influenced by its social environment in which the family constitutes the most significant context. The latter plays a vital role because it is, along with the school, the most productive domain for spreading educational mentality and its essential values. But what kind of family are we speaking about and what mentality do we mean ? We, of course, find in the Muslim countries families with different characteristics of structures, varying from traditional, extended families to modern, nuclear ones. However, do these families actually constitute human groups that are governed by an educational logic, with regulated measures and accurate methods and steps ? In reality, the family which should help the propagation of parental education and the practice of its effective methods is essentially "a cultural and social institution characterised by a specific educational logic which enables it to perform its educational function in a better way. It is a group of people which does not only consume ideas and products and obeys orders, but also contributes to a good preparation of a competent human being who is the source of all creativity and production. The family is a human cell which is far above being a mere façade for the economy, a parental authority or a religious influence. But the question to be asked here is : does the present-day family in the Muslim countries belong to that category of families which entitles its members to have the quality of a social institution that assumes a momentous cultural responsibility ? If we want to be realistic and objective, we can say that the family in most parts of the Muslim countries does not enter under this standard category, a fact which true to reality. Despite all the efforts that have been made up to now, it is obvious that the educational methods practised within these family milieux are still lacking in the most simple measures and requirements. For, in most families, these practices do not go beyond intimidation and terrorisation on certain occasions, distraction and amusement at times, and boastfulness and ostentation at others" (Ahrchaou 1998, p.18).

In addition to this, these families witnessed palpable changes in their functions and roles due to the transformations which their structural modes and component systems underwent as a result of the economic, social and cultural developments of Muslim societies. These changes and developments transformed the function of these families from a major one with many roles to a minor one with limited roles. The families, thus, left to the school a major part of their function which lies in their educational and knowledge imparting role, as will be shown later.

Therefore, families in the Muslim countries will, undoubtedly, extend and increase (extended families) shrink and decrease (nuclear ones) with no prevalence in most of them of educational practices that have conspicuous foundations and objectives, and accurate functions and roles as long as they are not aware of the fact that educational function is a strategic and decisive one, either because of their complete ignorance of this, or because of their material and cultural poverty. The families' ignorance of their essential educational function constitutes the third challenge that the Muslim countries have to meet, because how can it be accepted that the task of bringing up generations after generations be allotted to a social institution of the calibre of the family, while this institution completely ignores the requirements and conditions necessary for carrying out this task satisfactorily ? It is strange, however, for this is the case. This matter needs to receive all the attention it deserves.