Religious education in Kerala

Religious education in Kerala was historically influenced by traditional Indian religions like Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism through Gurukula, an ancient education system, with Abrahamic religions becoming practiced in Kerala at early stages through ancient maritime trade. Buddhism added educational vocabulary, including Namostu Jinatam, Ezhuthu Palli and Pallikoodam[clarification needed] to education in the Malayalam language. Madrasa institutions, coordinated by various Madarasa education boards, referred to as Othupalli or Palli Dar, since the independence of India. Modern Christian education began in the early 19th century.

Hindu religious education

According to Sudha Nambudiri, Thanthra Vidyapeedam, a low profile Vedic and tantric pathshala, or a Vedic and ritual school, at Aluva founded by Kalpuzha Divakaran Namboodiripad and P Madhavji in 1972 gives education in Kerala's temple shastra, Kerala's form of temple rituals, which follows Adi Shankara traditions in the Gurukulam system. Nambudiri says Vidyapeedam admits only ten tenth standard passed boys with some academic knowledge of the Sanskrit language, selected on the basis of their individual horoscopes every year. The seven year curriculum includes theoretical and practical studies in temple rituals based on Tantra Samuchayam, authored by Chennas Narayanan Nampoothiri, the Vedas, the Sanskrit language, Vaastu Shastra, Jyothisha, Yoga and meditation. On the completion of the course, which helps students join as temple priests or Sanskrit language teachers, students are awarded a postgraduate level degree, known as Thanthraratna, in the Sanskrit language by Ujjain's Maharishi Sandipani Rashtriya Ved Vidya Pratishthan.

Buddhist religious education

Buddhism has historical influences on educational culture in Kerala. Origin of calling schools[clarification needed] such as Ezhuthu Palli and Pallikoodam are under the influence of Buddhism. Until the end of the 18th century, the word 'Namostu Jinatam' (Namotu Chinatam) was used in the beginning of education training in Kerala in praise of the Buddha, meaning a prayer to Jinan or Buddha. At that time, the entire text of Kerala[clarification needed] was called Nanam Manam. It is an abbreviation of the Pali verses Naanam, Monam, Ettanam, Thuvanam, Jeenam, Ennanam, Thanam and Ummanam, corresponding to the eight noble ways: the right perspective, the right goal, the right speech, the right action, the right way of life, the right focus, the right concentration, and the right effort.

Christian religious education

In 1815, a British Resident, Colonel John Munro, founded a seminary in Kottayam, for the theological education of Jacobite Christian priests and invited the Anglican missionaries to teach there. This could be regarded as the beginning of the relationship between the Church Mission Society and the Saint Thomas Christians of the Puthenkuttukar, or "New Allegiance". Restrictions were imposed on Saint Thomas Christian parishes in order to start new schools, and later on the Travancore Diwan after they attempted to take over the schools owned by the community. The St. Joseph's LP School at Koonammavu was the first Catholic school for girls, and the first convent in Kerala was established in 1868 in simple a bamboo-mat house by Mother Eliswa, who later established more girls schools.

Islamic religious education

According to K. Mohammed Basheer, Kerala, a southern state of India, has one of the oldest madrasa (Malayalam: othupalli / Palli Dar) education systems in India which has been reformed in modern times to include non–religious subjects along with religious subjects. Muslim communities, specifically Mappilas in Kerala form one of the high literacy communities amongst Muslims in India. Historically, madrasas used to impart primary oral religious education, were connected to a mosque, and imams in the mosque used to work as religious teachers as well. Madrasas were non-residential whilst residential facilities supported by mosques and the Muslim village community were called Palli Dar. During the British colonisation of India, madrasas were upgraded to centres of primary education. Post-independence, madrasas hold religious education classes before or after regular schools. The All Kerala Islamic Education Board were the first organisation to conduct centralised examinations, subsequently different schools of Islamic thoughts came forward to form their own Islamic education boards to train teachers and conduct centralized examinations; namely the Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (SKIMVB), the Dakshiana Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board ( DKIMVB), the Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board (SKSVB) and the Samastha Kerala Islamic Education Board (SKIEB) are grounded in Ahl as-Sunnah, the Kerala Nadvathul Mujahideen Vidyabhyasa Board (KNM) and The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER) are rooted in the Ahal I Hadith school whereas the Majlis al Ta'alim al Islami kerala (Majlis) represents Jama'at i Islami.

As the Kerala Government does not have its own centralising Madrasa board, Kerala madrasas affiliate themselves to various madrasa boards backed by various religious institutions, based on different ideologies. Among the Madarasa boards, Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (SKIMVB), is the largest board, with 80 percent of madrasa affiliating with it in Kerala.

Since the 20th century, Arabic language classes have been popularized in Kerala for advanced religious education.

Islamic universities operate in Kerala, including Al Jamia Islamia and Darul Huda Islamic University.

Samastha Kerala Islam Matha Vidyabhyasa Board (SKIMVB)

SKIMVB is Kerala (India) based madrasa education board which imparts education from lower primary education to college education and conducts centralized examination for 5th, 7th, 10th and 12th grades.

History

Samastha Kerala Jem'iyyathul Ulema started SKIMVB in 1951. K. P. A. Mohiyadheen Kutti was the first president of the SKIMVB board. As of December 2013, SKIMVB had 9636[clarification needed] madrasas affiliated with the board, including 9636 lower primary, 5810 Upper primary, 2560 secondary and 570 senior secondary madrasas, with 585,554 boys and 630,836 girls, leading to a total of 1,216,390 students, led by 85,690 teachers. The board owns 180 schools and a Madarasa with a boarding facility, a teacher training center, a women's college and an engineering college. In December 2013 the staff consisted of 5 organizers, 6 Qari reciters, 6 teacher trainers, 96 academic inspectors, and 28 office staff, totalling to 141 staff. [clarification needed]

The board has published over 140 text books for various classes, in languages such as Arabic, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English. According to the goals explained on their website, they intend to help the students acquire (Islamic) moral education, making the curricula inculcate environment studies, the avoidance of communalism & terrorism, and instilling the secular vision and mission for religious harmony and patriotism. In over 90% of the madrasas, children acquire 2 hours of spiritual and moral education daily in the early morning before 9 AM, and then go to schools recognized by the government for general education.

Coordination of Islamic Colleges (CIC)

The Coordination of Islamic Colleges (C.I.C.) is an Islamic university serving as an academic administrative body. The C. I. C. has developed various integrated courses under the brands "Wafy" and "Wafiyya", combining both Islamic and secular higher education (after the Secondary School, leading to a state-recognised university degree). At present, there are around 100 institutes affiliated to the C. I. C in Kerala.

Controversy over awarding girl students on stage

On 7 May 2022, M.T. Abdulla Musaliyar, the state joint secretary of Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, and the General Secretary of school board Samastha Kerala Islam Vidyabhyasa Board, having approximately ten thousand madrasas in Karala, drew criticism following his controversial remark that young girls should not be allowed on public stages. A controversy ensued in regional and national media and social media about prohibiting girls' and women's entry into public stage and spaces.

The incident was telecasted live whilst M.T. Abdulla Musaliyar was expressing disappointment to the school award organisers, for inviting the teenage awardee girl student Mashida P. V. on stage, instead of giving the award to her parents, as per their organizational orthodox policy of gender segregation.

The instance occurred at a madrasa building inauguration function, which was held as part of the annual event of the Darul Ulum Madrasa at Ramapuram, near Panangangara in Perinthalmanna. In a video which went viral, the Samastha members were first seen presenting awards to a boy, after which the girl's name is called from the stage to receive her award. The school functionaries had invited the girl on to the stage to receive an award for excellence in education. The award was presented to the girl by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader Panakkad Sayed Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal. Even though the girl who walked on the stage was in full abaya and hijab, Abdullah Musliyar, the institution's clerical dignitary, publicly criticized the school organizers in the presence of the girl by pointing out that this was against the institutional ideology of Samastha.

It is reported that the cleric said on the stage "..Who invited a Class 10 girl to the stage? If you do this again... Don't call girls like this on stage, are you not supposed to call parents as per Samastha rules ? Did you call her ?.. Did not you do something that is not supposed to happen when we all sit on stage ? Won't this appear in photos and telecast?..".

According to Mathrubhumi, a Kerala-based news organisation, Samastha Kerala Jem'iyyathul Ulema defended Musaliyar's remarks saying that Samastha views matter in a religious manner, being a religious organisation. MT Abdullah Musliar said that Samastha looks after girls with the due respect and dignity, but Samastha policy does not enforce women and men on equal footing, and that no one has the right to say that Samastha policy needs to change. Defending their view, Musaliyar gave a similar example of a seminar he attended at Puthur in Karnataka, where he awarded certificates to those who completed the courses, but the parents and teachers had to receive the prizes on the girls' behalf. Musaliyar said, "There was a curtain at the venue to seclude women and they enjoyed the function from there".

As per Kerala Kaumudi, the video came to light from the 'Sunni Ulama Followers' Facebook page related to Samastha. According to the news reports, the incident got criticized, including on social media by progressive civil society, whereas some other sources went on to defend the cleric's position, and equated the criticism to Islamophobia. According to the Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan, while many social and political voices seem to have preferred silence rather than taking a progressive stand, Governor Khan said that such discrimination towards female students itself becomes a root cause of Islamophobia.

Samastha Kerala Sunni Vidyabhyasa Board

The SKSVB has affiliation of around ten thousand madrasas that account to around one million students and fifty thousand teachers, mainly from Kerala, however some come from across India and a few from overseas, being affiliated to SKSVB. The SKSVB is headquartered at Kozhikode, Kerala along with regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengal and Bangalore.

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