Religious Schools, Seating, & Segregation (beliefs, sexuality, faith, Jewish)

[Djamila]

How is seating arranged at religious schools of your faith, in your country?
Do you agree with this arrangement?

Most Islamic schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina are gender-specific. There are schools for boys and schools for girls, both completely separate institutions - though required by law to teach an identical curriculum - with the exception of two gender-specific electives chosen by the students themselves.

For example, students at an Islamic all-girls school may choose to the Women's History, Home Economics, or Sexuality - where students at an all-boys school could choose from Outdoor Survival, Industrial Arts, and so on.

At Islamic all-girl schools, women who refuse to wear the veil sit at the back of the class, with the rest of the students generally arranged by grades with those who achieve the highest marks sitting the farthest away from the teacher. A woman who refuses to wear the veil at an Islamic school has to be especially militant in her beliefs, it's one of the many scenarios in Bosnian culture where it's simply commonplace to put on a veil, even among non-Muslim professors (Islamic schools teach Jewish theology as well, as well as Christian in some areas) and visitors.

At Islamic all-boys schools, students are generally arranged with the best performers sitting at the back of the class. I really don't know why this is, I suppose because professors believe more hands-on involvement with the weaker students will increase their chances of improvement.

Many Islamic schools, though, are mixed - shared between boys and girls. These are to be found mainly in smaller communities without the necessary student population to justify having two separate schools. It's important to note that Islamic schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina are private and funded by the students' parents. The public educational system is secular, with any expressions of religion forbidden except the approved curriculum.

At mixed schools, the same dynamics come into play. Students with the highest marks sit in the back, while students with the worst marks sit in the front. Again, women who refuse to wear the veil are seated at the back of the class. There is one extra rule, though, that is surprisingly strictly enforced - boys and girls must sit separately, but equally. The boys cannot be in front of the girls, nor behind them - they must sit in separate areas, side by side.

And that's how it works:

I think this seating arrangement is fine. In a perfect world there would be no need to segregate boys and girls, but we don't live in a perfect world. As long as Islamic schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to produce the top-ranked students in the country (the final exam of high school is universal across the public and private school system, so it's easy to compare the quality of education in both), I see no reason to fix something that isn't broken.