Reframing the school calendar within the Islamic worldview

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As I was working on the school calendar for this year I started thinking about the Hijri calendar since the new Hijri year had just started (today is the 26th of Muharram, 1445 AH as I write this). Most Muslims follow the Gregorian calendar, and the Hijri calendar is mostly used on a secondary basis as a reference for religious holidays. Even most Islamic schools follow the public-school calendars to avoid scheduling conflicts.

Most attempts to “Islamicize” the school calendar in Islamic schools are cosmetic. They are superficial and do not really leverage the Islamic framework of the Hijri calendar. What do we lose when we do not follow it? Islamic schools are committed to developing and preserving the Muslim identity. What pedagogical opportunities are lost when we confine ourselves to following the Gregorian calendar and do not leverage the opportunities provided by the Hijri calendar?

It is important to understand how school calendars came to be to properly contextualize the response to the important question above. As I started digging a little bit deeper into the history of school calendars and the factors that determine them, I quickly realized that school calendars are very much socio-politically driven and deeply and intricately tied to many aspects of past and contemporary societies. It is important that we unpack these as it will help us to properly position any revisions we make to our school’s calendar within this larger discourse.

The History of School Calendars

Contemporary learning is a prisoner of time. Most schools follow a tightly regulated time regiment in the form of the length of the school day, week, and year. The unspoken but loud message is that students must learn what they can in the time that is made available to them. Standardization across industries and the scope of that standardization due to globalization has resulted in many similarities in school calendars across the world.

The Traditional Calendar School Year (TCS)

Most schools in US and Canada operate under the traditional calendar school year (TCS), which is about 180 to 190 compulsory days with a roughly 2 months summer break during the warmer months (see the Footnotes for schools around the world¹) . There is a common misconception that the current school calendar is a remnant from the days when schools operated in majority agrarian societies. However, early school calendars were centered around the needs of the community they served. Schools in farming communities had no summer vacation and students observed school breaks during planting (Spring) and harvest (Fall) instead and usually attended school during the summer .

Schools serving urban areas had school years substantially longer than schools in rural areas because they needed to serve larger student populations and accommodate the needs of the working parents. Students in urban areas took a break from school during the summer to escape the sweltering heat in the city . The traditional school calendar, as we know it today, became the norm in the early 1900s and was driven by many factors including extreme heat during the summer, influence of wealthy citizens, and financial needs .

Calls to change the traditional school calendar

Some contend that the traditional calendar is a remnant from a world that no longer exists and schools should move away from it so they can provide more flexible schooling options . However, summer vacation occupies a powerful position in our culture, economy, and historical memory. Policy makers and school leaders have yet to respond to calls to shift to alternative calendars to address the differences in contemporary societies, current family structures, technology, and student learning as compared to when the traditional calendar came into existence.

The ”Faucet Theory” of Learning and the Summer Slide

Some have described the pace at which learning occurs in today’s schools as the “Faucet Theory” where learning runs like a faucet during the school year but then comes to a sudden stop during the summer. This is specially the case for low SES² students while privileged students continue to benefit from enrichment opportunities during the break . Some have expressed concerns about the many school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic worsening this “summer slide” .

Disruptions to Traditional Schooling due to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to re-examine how we school our children. The pandemic disrupted school time leading to a decline in learning opportunities. School closures peaked in the Spring of 2020 putting nearly 1.5 billion students out of the classroom around the world.

Early indications point to learning loss and stagnation, especially among disadvantaged students for whom access to resources and technology may not have been readily available . The transition back to in-person schooling is occurring faster in developed countries and may further exacerbate the global achievement gap among children . Many of these countries, unfortunately, happen to be Muslim majority countries.

Efforts to close the post-pandemic academic gap

Efforts to close the post-pandemic academic gap have focused on increasing the amount of time kids spend in schools. The Summer of 2022 saw nearly half of the US school districts using emergency pandemic-related funds to offer summer instruction and a third of the US school districts using those funds to add time to the school day . Structural changes to schooling brought about by the pandemic have opened the eyes of educators to other possibilities for schooling children.

Consequently, other efforts to close the gap include a renewed interest in modifying the traditional school calendar to a balanced approach, such as the year-round education. Such approaches may also potentially slow down the spread of infectious diseases; an important consideration given that we may be facing future pandemics and viral outbreaks . However, recent findings are telling us that children may not be the major drivers of viral transmission and efforts to reduce infectious disease through calendar alterations may not be warranted .

Other Types of School Calendars

Time³ was cited as one of the five necessary changes to improving schools in the US . Some schools have tried to address this by trying different models of schooling, including the introduction of the 4-day school week to address the pandemic induced rise in remote work schedules . Ontario’s Education Minister is opposed to this change, favouring the 5-day week instead. Such structural changes to schooling are usually very disruptive, leading to such disagreements and revealing how deeply intertwined the life of the community and society is to school calendars.

There are 3 major school calendar types in addition to the traditional school calendar:

• Year-Round Education (YRE): Considered a balanced calendar approach, year-round education (YRE) also observes 180-190 compulsory days but provides 1-3 weeks intersessions dispersed throughout the school year with a shorter summer break . Enrichment programs are often provided during the longer intersessions. YRE schools can be single track or have multiple tracks. Having multiple terms in a year allows for different tracks distributed to various times around the year. YRE schools are often viewed as a solution to alleviate space concerns as students can be divided into multiple track cohorts . For example, quite recently, Ghana introduced 400 multi-track YRE schools to address overcrowding in their schools . However, YRE schools have been declining for the last 20 years .
• Extended School Year (ESY): The extended school year is considered another balanced calendar approach. The extended school year (ESY) is similar to YRE with the exception that it has additional compulsory school days with as many as 265 days in some schools . ESY schools most often serve poor, minority and English language learners (ELL) students and are found in larger cities . ESY is also used to deploy Individualized Education Programs (IEP) for students with special needs. ESY supporters cite the disparity between the school year in the US and other industrialized nations where the school year averages 240 days as compared to 175-180 days in the US . ESY schools are few in number though. For example, ESY schools comprise only one tenth of one percent of US elementary schools .
• 4-Day School Week: The four-day school week is not a new concept and was introduced in the 1970s in response to an energy crisis in New Mexico, USA . More schools are implementing four-day school weeks to reduce overhead and transportation costs. The four-day week requires substantial schedule changes as schools must increase the length of their school day or school year to meet minimum instructional hour requirements. An estimate in 2008 cites 17 US states utilizing this alternative calendar . This calendar has seen a resurgence post-pandemic as parents are willing to consider this alternative due to their ability to select flexible work options such as working from home and a four-day work week .

Calls for revising the school calendar to one of the above options often cite the positive impact of such changes on student academic achievement.

What is the impact of the school calendar on student academic achievement?

The impact of TCS vs YRE schools

One study concluded that there is no significant difference in student academic achievement between students attending TCS or YRE schools . This is contrary to other studies that cite the use of non-traditional calendars as a reason for countries that outperform the U.S. in education and studies by the U.S. Department of education that cite schools with fewer breaks as having positive outcomes in student academic achievement . On the other hand, factors such as student motivation, quality of instruction, and other environmental factors are common and more dominant elements that positively contribute to student academic achievement in both type of schools .

The impact of 4-week schools

Schools initially cited money savings as the reason for shifting to a four-day school week and then cited others reasons such as more PD opportunities for teachers, collaboration time for staff, and promoting attendance, teacher retention and recruitment . However, Turner et al. and Morton did not find any significant impact on student academic achievement when schools shifted to a four-day school week.

Modifying school calenders has a “small positive impact”

Hattie’s ranking of the various influences on student academic achievement, which number more than 250, ranks “Modifying school calendars/timetables” at 218. He groups under this term various strategies such as changing the school terms, semesters, vacation times, times of day for starting and closing school, block scheduling and length of class time as related structural changes to schooling. According to him, such strategies are likely to have a small positive impact; however, there are other strategies, 217 of them, that may have a greater impact on student academic achievement that school leaders need to consider before considering changes to school timings or the school calendar!

Other interventions with greater impact

Hess , while writing about the time spent at school by students concludes that the amount of time spent is less important than how they spend it. He states that significant time is lost because a lot of it does not involve learning either because of interruptions or other non-learning activities or because students are not engaged.

Student disengagement is a serious problem in schools. Disengaged time is lost time because tuned-out students aren’t learning. Rather than focusing on how much time is spent, he advocates a focus on learning. This is like the conclusion from Hattie who also advocates the importance of focusing on visible learning strategies.

Morales concludes safeguarding instructional time and the quality of instructional time is important as those factors, along with student motivation and other environmental factors are stronger determinants of student academic achievement. She cites the National Education Association as identifying nine components to help close the student academic achievement gap of low SES students: enhanced cultural competence, comprehensive support for students, outreach to student’s families, classrooms that support learning, supportive schools, strong district support, adequate resources and funding, extended learning opportunities, and access to qualified staff.

Other factors that influence the school calendar

Student academic achievement, though often cited as the primary reason for any changes in schooling, is not necessarily the primary reason for any changes in the school calendar. Today’s school calendars continue to be influenced by many external factors such as financial constraints, parent expectations, community resources, and government mandates . The table below summarizes the various criteria that are cited and drive any revisions to the school calendar along with their impact.

Calls to revise the school calendar have also come from other voices citing the cultural irrelevance of school calendars to today’s pluralistic societies.

Cultural Relevance of School Calendars

Most school calendars are deeply rooted in Christian priorities because most contemporary schools in the West were founded at a time when literacy was explicitly linked to the ability to understand Christian scripture . Wilson highlights how the European calendar doesn’t align with the values of the Anishnaabe community. He talks about how the Anishnaabe had their own lunar calendar that connected them with the land and ensured their survival and success. He argues that for the curriculum to be culturally relevant, it needs to be delivered within the framework of the Anishnaabe calendar.

Muslims negotiating cross-cultural tensions in contemporary school calendars

Muslims, living as a religious minority in the West, have had to endure Islamophobia and are in a constant state of negotiating many cross-cultural tensions in the public space. The school calendar is one such cultural artifact and a public space platform where Muslims must constantly negotiate cross-cultural tensions.

Muslims have the Hijri calendar, a lunar calendar, that connects them with important Islamic dates and events that directly inform the Muslim identity. These dates are often missing from contemporary school calendars. Muslims have advocated for Eid holidays to be included in school calendars and have met with resistance because of socio-political and logistical issues.

A request to include Eid holidays

A case in point was the petition made by a Muslim high school student in Detroit to include the Eid holidays in his school’s calendar . Though the City and the Detroit Federation of Teachers reached a verbal agreement to recognize those holidays, the deal fell through because of scheduling issues. The school district realized that many compromises needed to be reached before finalizing the agreement because the calendar is negotiated with DFT and other unions. Issues such as teacher training and compensation, the impact on other breaks in the school, start and end of the school year, etc. became sticking points in the negotiations.

Something seemingly as simple as adding a few holidays in the school calendar quickly became a complex bargaining process revealing how school calendars are deeply and intricately embedded in our society.

Attempts to add religious holidays to the school calendar are mostly cosmetic and superficial if they are not tied at a deeper level to our Muslim identity. In order for us to understand this we must first examine how the concept of time is viewed and organized in the Islamic worldview.

The Concept of Time in the Islamic Worldview

Time is a creation of Allah (swt) and the ability to measure it is a sign of Allah (swt) and His Divine order:

هُوَ ٱلَّذِى جَعَلَ ٱلشَّمۡسَ ضِيَآءً۬ وَٱلۡقَمَرَ نُورً۬ا وَقَدَّرَهُ ۥ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعۡلَمُواْ عَدَدَ ٱلسِّنِينَ وَٱلۡحِسَابَ‌ۚ مَا خَلَقَ ٱللَّهُ ذَٲلِكَ إِلَّا بِٱلۡحَقِّ‌ۚ يُفَصِّلُ ٱلۡأَيَـٰتِ لِقَوۡمٍ۬ يَعۡلَمُونَ (٥)

(Quran 10:5)

It is He who made the sun radiant, and the moon a light, and determined phases for it—that you may know the number of years and the calculation. Allah did not create all this except with truth. He details the revelations for a people who know. (Quran 10:5)⁴

How Islam established justice through the calendar

During the days of jahiliyyah⁵, the Arabs used to manipulate the calendar for their own business and political interests, a practice called “nas”i” . Allah (swt) expressly forbade nasi in the Qur’an declaring it to be an increase in disbelief (see Quran 9:37). The calendar was used as a political instrument to control the masses. One tribe, Banu Kinanah, was responsible for determining the start and end of months and would sometimes switch these months for the benefit of those in power. Islam established justice by taking this authority away from Banu Kinanah and giving it to the people by mandating the sighting of the moon as a way to compute the start and end of each month .

Islam restored the Divinely ordained measurement and organization of time. Allah (swt) has clearly stated in the Quran that the length of the year is 12 months from the time Allah (swt) created the heavens and the earth. Allah (swt) says in Surah At-Taubah:

إِنَّ عِدَّةَ ٱلشُّہُورِ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱثۡنَا عَشَرَ شَہۡرً۬ا فِى ڪِتَـٰبِ ٱللَّهِ يَوۡمَ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٲتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَ مِنۡہَآ أَرۡبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌ۬‌ۚ ذَٲلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلۡقَيِّمُ‌ۚ فَلَا تَظۡلِمُواْ فِيہِنَّ أَنفُسَڪُمۡ‌ۚ وَقَـٰتِلُواْ ٱلۡمُشۡرِڪِينَ كَآفَّةً۬ ڪَمَا يُقَـٰتِلُونَكُمۡ ڪَآفَّةً۬‌ۚ وَٱعۡلَمُوٓاْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلۡمُتَّقِينَ (٣٦) إِنَّمَا ٱلنَّسِىٓءُ زِيَادَةٌ۬ فِى ٱلۡڪُفۡرِ‌ۖ يُضَلُّ بِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ يُحِلُّونَهُ ۥ عَامً۬ا وَيُحَرِّمُونَهُ ۥ عَامً۬ا لِّيُوَاطِـُٔواْ عِدَّةَ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ فَيُحِلُّواْ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ‌ۚ زُيِّنَ لَهُمۡ سُوٓءُ أَعۡمَـٰلِهِمۡ‌ۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهۡدِى ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱلۡڪَـٰفِرِينَ (٣٧)

(Quran 9:36-37)

36. The number of months, according to Allah, is twelve months—in the decree of Allah—since the Day He created the heavens and the earth, of which four are sacred. This is the correct religion. So do not wrong yourselves during them. And fight the polytheists collectively, as they fight you collectively, and know that Allah is with the righteous. 37. Postponement is an increase in disbelief—by which those who disbelieve are led astray. They allow it one year, and forbid it another year, in order to conform to the number made sacred by Allah, thus permitting what Allah has forbidden. The evil of their deeds seems good to them. Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.

The Prophet ﷺ further emphasized the restoration of time to the Divine ordainment during his Farewell Sermon during the Hajj thereby highlighting for us the seriousness of manipulating time to suit our own interests as it directly conflicts with the concept of complete submission to Allah ﷻ in all matters. Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said: “Time has come back to its original state which it had when Allah created the heavens and the earth.” .

Time is the most valuable resource!

Allah ﷻ took an oath by time in many places in the Qur’an to emphasize its importance and its role in our life. Time is the most valuable resource/asset we have. How we manage it directly translates to the quality of life here and in the hereafter.

Time is intimately linked to ‘ibadah (worship) in Islam. Allah ﷻ instituted many of the obligatory acts of worship at specific times during the year and the day. We have Ramadan and Hajj that come at specific times during the year and then we have our daily salah that has been instituted at specific times.

The Prophet ﷺ has also emphasized the importance of time on many occasions:

At one time the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said:

عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ لِرَجُلٍ وَهُوَ يَعِظُهُ اغْتَنِمْ خَمْسًا قَبْلَ خَمْسٍ شَبَابَكَ قَبْلَ هَرَمِكَ وَصِحَّتَكَ قَبْلَ سَقَمِكَ وَغِنَاكَ قَبْلَ فَقْرِكَ وَفَرَاغَكَ قَبْلَ شُغُلِكَ وَحَيَاتَكَ قَبْلَ مَوْتِكَ

(Narrated by Ibn Abbas and reported by Al Hakim)

“Take benefit of five before five: Your youth before your old age, your health before your sickness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before you are preoccupied, and your life before your death.”

At another time, the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have said:

عَنْ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ نِعْمَتَانِ مَغْبُونٌ فِيهِمَا كَثِيرٌ مِنْ النَّاسِ الصِّحَّةُ وَالْفَرَاغُ

(Bukhari 8/421)

“There are two blessings which many people lose: (They are) health and free time for doing good.”

Time is truly the only non-renewable resource. Once it is used, it is gone forever. Moreover, the time in this world is exponentially related to time in the hereafter. Deeds done in this life can exponentially impact an infinite lifetime in the hereafter!

Keeping all of the above in mind, the sahabah (ra) took great care in preserving the Divine ordainment of time through the institution of the Hijri calendar.

The Hijri Calendar

The Hijri calendar was established during the Khilafa of Umar (ra) to standardize the administration of the government. A committee of the sahabah (ra), upon the recommendation of Umar (ra), selected the evening of Friday, July 16, 622 CE, the anniversary of the migration of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ from Makkah to Medinah, to mark the beginning of the lunar year .

Umar (ra) in selecting the migration as the starting point of the Hijri calendar stated that the migration separated truth from falsehood therefore it was more befitting to begin the calendar from there . Accordingly, scholars of previous generations viewed using the Hijri calendar as obeying Allah ﷻ and His Messenger ﷺ and the consensus of the sahabah (ra); hence a form of worship .

Since then, the Hijri calendar served as the primary calendar around which majority of the Muslim community from China to Morocco organized itself. The contemporary loss of the Hijri calendar aligns with the colonization and encroachment of European powers over the Muslim lands. Now the Hijri calendar is confined to the private lives of Muslims and referred for only religious purposes to check the dates of Islamic events and holidays such as Ramadan, Eid, and Hajj.

The use of the Hijri calendar has declined even in Muslim majority countries as it continues to be detached from civil life and confined to just religious matters. Economic reasons seem to be driving this change. A case in point is Saudi Arabia that in 2016 switched public sector employees to the Gregorian calendar for determining the pay schedules. This effectively increased the workload by eleven days per year .

What have we lost with the removal of the Hijri calendar from public spaces (such as government functions, workplaces, schools, etc.)?

The loss of Eid holidays from the public consciousness is immediately apparent; however, there are less apparent but more serious casualties that have taken place with the loss of the Hijri calendar:

• Disconnected us from the spiritual dimension of time. The Hijri calendar divides time into sacred and non-sacred days and months that facilitate many rituals and devotional acts that are central to the Muslim identity. The Gregorian calendar that we observe disconnects us from this spiritual rhythm of life and instead promotes a materialistic lifestyle wherein time is driven by seasonal sales and deals to drive consumer behaviour. Islam, through the Hijri calendar, shifted the focus from economics to spiritual development by making deeds more meritorious during the sacred months.
• Disconnected us from the creation of Allah (swt). The Hijri calendar, as a lunar calendar, immediately connects us with one of the most amazing creations of Allah (swt), the moon. Its loss has disconnected us from Allah’s creation.
• Loss of many cultural traditions: There were many cultural traditions we lost that revolved around the sighting of the moon each month and specially for sighting the moon to mark the beginning of Ramadan. My father, may Allah have mercy on him, would proudly tell me how as a child he would go out with his father and others from the community to sight the Ramadan moon. Many would be dressed in their best clothes. Many government officials would come dressed in their official clothes. As the moon was sighted, a wave of excitement would ripple through the crowd, re-energizing them! People would excitedly point out the crescent with their swords or walking sticks to those who had not spotted it yet, cannons would be fired to salute the new moon, and collective and individual duas would be made beseeching Allah ﷻ for the blessings of the new month.
• Loss of a cultural and civilizational identity. The Hijri calendar united Muslims across traditionally established cultural and geographical boundaries. Muslims would travel vast distances and were able to meet in Makkah at the same time for Hajj, something miraculous before the advent of global communications like the satellite and the Internet!

Historically, most schools in Muslim lands observed the Hijri calendar, which greatly facilitated their role in developing the young Muslim identity.

The school year in Muslim history

Education has always played a central role in Muslim history. The very first Divine command issued to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and to the early Muslims was “Iqra!” (Read!). Teaching and learning were viewed as one of the highest forms of worship and Muslims took great pride in education and our educational institutions were global trailblazers in many fields of learning. One wonders how the school year may have looked in Muslim lands. Did children attend school for part of the year or continuously for the whole year?

Nature of schooling in Muslim lands led to a non-standardized school year

Muslim lands spanned from China to Morocco and the educational system in those lands must have differed across geographical, cultural, and political boundaries as it differs today from place to place. Education for the most part was less institutionalized in Muslims lands with the authority to grant ijaza (certificate) resting with the individual scholar. There were many informal venues for learning. These included masajid, private residences of scholars, apprenticeships, and other private tutors. Each must have followed a school schedule suited to the needs of their students.

As early as the 900s, young students were educated in primary schools called a maktab⁶ that were usually attached to the masjid and served by resident scholars (Alkhateeb, 2014). The school year was not standardized and differed from one maktab to the other. Additionally, the duration of education varied from student to student based on individual needs and circumstances. The curriculum primarily focused on the Quran, Arabic language, arithmetic, and Islamic laws. After completing the maktab, students could move on to their adult life via an occupation through apprenticeship or continue their studies in a madrasah⁷

The historical use of the Hijri calendar in schools

The madaaris⁸ were the precursors of today’s universities. They were funded through large endowments and had separate faculties. Students were able to pick a concentration of study and studied from many different scholars over several years. The madaaris were more structured and followed the Hijri calendar. The academic year would start with the month of Muharram, a sacred month and end with the completion of the month of Dhul-Hijjah, another sacred month. The length of the school year differed from place to place. Madaaris had a longer school year than the makatib. Additionally, one can assume that the makatib must have had a shorter school year than the elementary schools of today as they covered less curriculum than what is covered in today’s elementary schools.

The decline of the Hijri based school calendar

Colonization and encroachment of European powers disrupted the Muslim educational system. The Ottoman Empire, for example, underwent a complete “reform” of the educational system where religion was removed from the curriculum and replaced with secular sciences . The adoption of the secular educational system by most states relegated the traditional religious schools, the makatib, and by association the Hijri based school calendar, to the private space.

In today’s times, most schools in Muslim countries follow the Gregorian calendar. The academic year, like schools in the West, starts in September or October and ends in June or July with holidays such as Eid-ul-Adha and Eid-ul-Fitr. How did this change in school calendars change centuries of Islamically driven routines in Muslim societies? One can assume that it must have significantly changed patterns of public life since the secular education system did not really centralize a spiritual life as it was adopted to produce workers to feed the bureaucratic and administrative needs of the state. One also wonders what impact this had on student achievement and their identity.

The impact of a Hijri based school calendar

Islamic schools often deliver isolated content within artificial time-based silos that do not necessarily align with the divinely ordained framework for time. Having a school calendar based on the Hijri calendar may enable us to move away from this approach and have the following impact:

• Develop best practices: It would allow teachers to collaboratively develop best practices for delivering curricula within an Islamic framework as they would be teaching similar content at the same time. When planning, teachers would be able to integrate the many relevant teachings found during that particular month.
• Learning will become relevant to Muslim life: Students will be able to display their learning in ways that are relevant to their life as a Muslim. Using a Hijri calendar will make learning immediately relevant to the daily life as a Muslim; thereby grounding the community to its history and the Islamic worldview. This aligns with the concept of situated learning as developed by Lave and Wenger . Such situated learning that is contextualized within the Hijri calendar will engage students in deep learning as they revisit the same theme in novel ways at the same time of the school year.
• Alignment of the curriculum to Islamic theme: It will facilitate alignment of the curriculum to Islamic themes throughout the year and will enable teachers to develop communities of practice that are focused on the integration of Islamic themes across the curriculum from month to month.
• Facilitate development of the Muslim identity: Aligning the school calendar to the Hijri calendar will facilitate many aspects of the Muslim identity. For example, if we just look at fasting. We are required to fast in Ramadan and recommended to fast the Day of ‘Arafah, the Day of ‘Ashura, the six days of Shawwal, and increase our fasts in Sha’ban and fast Mondays and Thursdays of every week. Structuring the calendar to facilitate these days would help students to practice these recommendation and obligatory fasts.
• Redefine student assessment: A school calendar based on the Hijri calendar will redefine student assessment. The assessment criteria will not only include the typical cognitive benchmarks found in the secular schooling systems but will also target other criteria, skills, and mindsets related to the religious duties and obligations specific to each month of the Islamic calendar. A Hijri based school calendar can facilitate competency-based learning instead of time based learning . This will reframe how we measure student success, provide a sense of fulfillment that is aligned with the Muslim identity, promote life-long learning, and teach students to use what they have learned in pragmatic and morally ethical ways.

Considerations for revising the school calendar

School leaders that are considering revisions to their school’s calendar should not ignore lessons learned from the past and should be careful in pursuing interventions that are highly disruptive and, in the end, may not have as big an impact on student achievement as other less disruptive interventions. Be sure to review the ways different approaches to school calendars impact student achievement as listed in Table 1. Teacher quality, reduced class size, reducing student absenteeism, and increasing student motivation are some of the other strategies that have a greater impact on closing the achievement gap than interventions that seek to modify the school calendar .

The danger of zombie reforms

Some have termed the post-pandemic efforts to modify the school calendar to a YRE as “zombie reforms” stating that such efforts have been discredited long time ago and the pandemic just reanimated interest in them . According to von Hippel and Graves , the quality of evidence supporting a shift from TCS to YRE either points to learning loss among students or lacks rigour and is inconsistent. Poorly designed research studies on the impact of calendars on student academic achievement have made the reliability of the results questionable leading to the argument that the findings are too close to a chance outcome and cannot be trusted .

Related research may be subject to the Hawthorne Effect

Little literature exists on the impact of YRE and ESY on student academic achievement. Additionally, most of the calendar change research is not longitudinal and may be subject to the Hawthorne Effect⁹ . It focuses only on a short period of time during which schools, knowing they are being studied, may put in more effort thereby skewing results. Therefore, policy makers and school leaders should be cautious in using available literature to justify any shift from TCS to YRE or ESY.

Survey your school community before making any changes!

Since school calendars are so deeply integrated into our lifestyles, there are many competing interests and influences making it difficult to rely on just one set of factors to inform any changes to the calendar. Instead, school leaders should survey their community to better customize the calendar to the needs of their school community. For example, not all schools in the same school district may be on a year-round calendar, which can lead to families having siblings on different tracks creating scheduling conflicts for the family .

Staff and students needs should inform any changes

Additionally, time management decisions should be purposeful and based on the needs of students and educators. The concept of learning density¹⁰ is important to take into consideration . The goal in maximizing time is not to just have students sit through lectures or group activities all day, the goal is productivity. And productivity is determined by the needs on the ground. So, spending 20 minutes doing math drills may be considered productive in one school and may be viewed as unproductive in another school. It all depends on what the students and educators need to be productive.

Maximizing instructional time has a direct impact on academic achievement. School leaders can boost instructional time by making sure teachers begin class promptly, by minimizing classroom disruptions, increasing attendance, communicating behaviour expectations, and preparing materials in advance .

Questions to ask yourself before revising the school calendar

School leaders should realize that there is a lot of work involved in transitioning from a TCS to a YRE . They should be prepared to implement extensive communication, do a lot of consultation and planning since school calendars are so deeply embedded into our society and govern various aspects of our life. You may want to ask yourself the following questions before making any changes to your school’s calendar:

1. What problems/challenges are you trying to address with this change? Is it serving any unique needs of the school and community? Be very clear about this!
2. Number of holidays during the school year and how will they be structured? How will they impact the families the school is serving?
3. Do the number of instructional days comply with any government/district mandates? How will those instructional days be structured?
4. Did you provide enough time for staff development before, during, and after?
5. What implications does the proposed change have on the delivery of the curriculum? Think about sequencing and continuity!
6. What opportunities are provided for remediation and enrichment?
7. What impact does this have on student academic achievement? How and when will you assess the success of the planned intervention/change?
8. Does the implementation schedule for the planned intervention facilitate proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention/change?

Tips on bringing the Hijri calendar back into our life

How can school leaders of Islamic schools organize the school calendar to recapture what we’ve lost and to facilitate the delivery of a culturally relevant curriculum to our students? First, I am not advocating that we abandon the Gregorian calendar as it is impractical to do so in our globally connected world. Instead, we can use the Hijri calendar in parallel with the Gregorian calendar by integrating it in ways that promote the Muslim identity. Schools can play a powerful role in reactivating the Hijri calendar in our life. Here are some ways we can do that:

1. Today’s technology allows us to add the Hijri calendar to our digital calendar and smartphones. Teach students, teachers, and parents how to do this.
2. If you have the date displayed on the school’s website then be sure to display the Hijri date as well.
3. Include the Hijri calendar in the official school calendar. This poses a challenge for those of us who follow the sighting of the moon to determine the beginning of each month. This challenge can be overcome by building space in the calendar that allows us to pen in the beginning of each month using the moon sightings.
4. Organize school holidays and events around the Hijri calendar. This will encourage and greatly facilitate staff and parents to organize their life around the Hijri calendar.
5. Organize student learning around the Hijri calendar. This will greatly facilitate the integration of Islamic holidays and events from Muslim history into lessons.
6. Explicitly teach the Hijri calendar. Develop lessons across grade levels on the Hijri calendar.
7. Display the Hijri date on the board, class presentations, etc.
8. Require students to include the Hijri date on any submitted work.
9. Announce the Hijri date in daily announcements, assemblies, and meetings and include it in your morning routine.
10. Include the Hijri date in all official school communication.
11. Periodically organize moon sighting evenings where students, parents, and staff can come together to sight the moon to mark the beginning of a month, especially the sacred months.

How do you incorporate the Hijri calendar in your school? Be sure to share in the comments below!

In conclusion

The Hijri calendar facilitated a robust spiritual lifestyle that intimately aligned us to our fitrah and to the Divine Order. It is not just another way to schedule our time. It is an expression of our submission to and worship of Allah ﷻ. It is one of the few Islamic institutions that we can still easily access that has the potential to reconnect us as an ummah. As educators, we are uniquely positioned to revive the Hijri calendar since communities and families with children tend to organize their life around children’s schooling.

In conclusion, school leaders should realize that it is impossible to develop a perfect calendar for all. School is a complex enterprise that is deeply embedded into various societal structures. Therefore, many societal factors influence and even govern it. Any changes to the school calendar should be informed by the needs of the staff and the community. What is important is that school leaders should be open to creating agile learning environments that are not only responsive to the unpredictable nature of another pandemic but also able to individualize learning within an Islamic worldview. This requires school leaders to think outside the traditional structures of schooling and colonial structures that have been imposed upon us.

References

1. K-12 schools around the world follow disparate calendars and distribute mandated hours throughout the school year based on a variety of factors such as weather, geography, economics, holidays, and other traditions (Jones, 2022). According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that tracks global education data, pre-primary level teachers average 1000 instructional hours, primary school teachers average 800 instructional hours and secondary school teachers average 700 hours per year (OECD, 2022). However, there is great disparity across countries in terms of the number of mandated teaching hours. For example, at the upper secondary level, teaching hours vary from 483 hours annually in Poland to 1,248 hours in Costa Rica.
2. SES: Socio economic status
3. The other four changes were curriculum content, teacher preparedness, standards, and testing.
4. Itani, T. (n.d.). Quran in English—Clear and Easy to Read. Retrieved August 12, 2023, from https://www.clearquran.com
5. Jahiliyyah: refers to the Age of Ignorance, the period before the Divine revelation to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
6. Maktab: Derived from the word kataba, “to write”, refers to an elementary school.
7. Madrasah: The word madrasah derives from the root word د-ر-س D-R-S ‘to learn, study’. In other words, it literally means “a place where learning and studying take place” or “place of study”. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrasa
8. Madaaris: plural for madrasah
9. Hawthorne effect: a change in behaviour that is driven by the knowledge that one is being observed.
10. Learning Density: the amount of actual learning in a given time segment (Moskowitz, 2022). It is not just about the amount of time students are spending in school but how they are spending that time.