New Texts for Madrasas: Kerala Muslim Group's
Experiments in Curricular Reform
Yoginder Sikand
The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER)
is a wing of one of the largest Islamic movements in
Kerala, the Kerala Nadwat ul-Mujahidin (KNM). The KNM
runs some three hundred and fifty part-time
coeducational madrasas across Kerala, and the CIER's
work is to prepare books for these schools and to
train their teachers. Established in 2002, the CIER is
headed by Dr. E.K.Ahmad Kutty, former Head of the
Department of Arabic in Calicut University. Other
senior members of the CIER's governing board include
Saeed Faruqi, Chief Instructor of the Government-run
Arabic Language Teachers' Training Institute, Calicut,
and N.P.Abdul Ghafoor, member of the Kerala Government
Textbooks Committee.
'Our major achievement so far', explains Abdul Jabbar
Thirupanachi, a member of the CIER's governing board,
'is a set of new textbooks for our madrasas, which are
probably one of their kind in the whole of India'. The
madrasa texts used previously, he says, were at least
half a century old and badly need to be reformed. 'We
retained the basic content of the earlier curriculum
as it broadly was', he relates, 'but made major
changes in style and presentation, drawing on modern,
child-centric, activity-based and story-telling
teaching methods that encourage students to think for
themselves rather than simply bombarding them with
information'.
Thirupanachi proudly displays a set of the CIER's new
madrasa texts--brightly coloured cartoons and pictures
splayed on every page, the Malayalam and Arabic
lettering large and bold and reader-friendly for
children, each chapter ending with a set of questions,
puzzles, fill-in-the-blank exercises and so on.
'Learning should not be a drab affair. It should be
fun', he says as he flips through the texts and tells
me what they contain. 'The old books were somewhat
drab and boring and very preachy', he goes on. 'Some
conservatives elsewhere might have problems with the
pictures that our new books use', he says in reply to
my query about them, 'but in Kerala this is a
non-issue really'. The pictures and cartoons that fill
the books are the work of a noted Hindu artist from
Calicut, he informs me. 'In many Arab countries, too,
they have books like this. In fact, we've borrowed
quite a few ideas from their books as well', he adds.
In addition, Thirupanachi says, the CIER has prepared
a set of audio CDs of rhymes contained in its new
textbooks, and plans to prepare visual CDs of lessons
as teaching aids for madrasa instructors. Half of
these instructors, he tells me, are women.
For my benefit, since I do not know either Arabic or
Malayalam, Thirupanachi translates excerpts from the
texts. One chapter is about zakat, the poor-due. 'In
the texts we earlier used, children were simply told
about zakat', he says. 'But in these new books', he
explains, 'children are asked to count the number of
members of their family who are eligible to pay zakat,
to discuss with their parents the assets they have and
to calculate how much zakat they should pay on them
and whom they should pay it to and so on'. 'In this
way', he points out, 'they learn what zakat is in
practical terms. Besides, it is also a mathematical
exercise for them and a way for them to discuss what
they learn in the madrasa with their parents'.
Thirupanachi selects another chapter, this one on
salaat or worship. While the previous texts simply
instructed the children on the various physical
movements and verses to be recited during prayers, the
new ones involve doing this practically, the students
going along with their teachers to the neighbourhood
mosque and following him or her in offering their
prayers.
The classes conducted by the KNM's madrasas are held
for two hours a day, either in the early mornings or
in the late afternoons, thus allowing their students
to attend regular school simultaneously. These
madrasas are till the seventh grade, and so far the
CIER has produced new madrasa texts for students till
the fifth grade. These include books for the teaching
of basic Arabic and Islamic Studies. The CIER is
presently working on texts for students in higher
classes, which will be used once the KNM's madrasas go
beyond the seventh grade. In the meantime, for these
senior students it has prepared a curriculum to be
used during their summer vacations. It is also almost
over with work on a set of two texts for kindergarten
students, which, Thirupanachi tells me, deal with such
issues as respect for parents, elders and friends,
personal hygiene and basic moral values, relayed
through rhymes and stories.
Another area in which the CIER is doing pioneering
work is that of madrasa teachers' training. It
conducts madrasa teachers' training courses, of one
month for new madrasa teachers and two-day refresher
courses three times a year for existing madrasa
teachers. Plans are also afoot to establish a separate
madrasa teachers' training institute to popularize the
use of modern teaching methods in the madrasas.
The KNM runs almost 100 Arabic Colleges or
higher-level madrasas across Kerala that are geared to
training ulema or Islamic scholars. Students join them
after finishing at least their tenth grade, which
means, Thirupanachi explains, that all of the KNM's
ulema are also at least matriculates. Of the KNM's
Arabic Colleges, three are affiliated to
Government-run universities, and use the syllabus
prescribed by these universities. The others are
autonomous, their syllabus being framed by the KNM
authorities. Students in most of these colleges also
appear as private candidates for university-conducted
examinations for the Afzal ul-Ulema degree, which is
now recognized as equivalent to a Bachelor's of Arts
degree. The CIER is engaged in preparing some new
texts for these colleges that deal with new
jurisprudential or fiqh issues so that would-be ulema
that are being trained in these colleges are kept
abreast of new developments.
The CIER's new madrasa books, Thirupanachi tells me,
are now also being used in institutions other than the
KNM's madrasas. Some English-medium schools are now
using their texts for teaching Arabic, and the CIER is
translating its Malayalam-language Islamic Studies
texts into English so that they have a wider appeal
outside Kerala as well. The books are also being used
in the madrasas run by the Indian Islahi Centres,
affiliated to the KNM, in several Gulf states where
many Malayali Muslims live. In order to present its
model of madrasa education, management and reform, the
CIER recently organized two large conventions, one in
Calicut and the other in New Delhi, that brought ulema
and Muslim educationists from different parts of
India, particularly the north, where many madrasas
still remain stuck in a medieval groove. 'Nothing much
has come out of these conventions in practical terms
as yet', confesses Thirupanachi, 'but at least they
provided us a means to get our message across and tell
others about our efforts'.
All in all, then, a unique, trail-blazing approach to
madrasa reform.
Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye
The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
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