The Role of I.A.I.N. In The Education System Reform of the “Madrasah”
Dr Hj Gamal Abdul Nasir Hj Zakaria, Dr Hjh Salwa Dato Hj Mahalle

Abstract
IAIN (State Islamic Institute) is a part of the Islamic education system in Indonesia. As a higher Islamic institution, IAIN (currently there are twenty such institutions in Indonesia) is a continuation of the primary and secondary level of the madrasah. The establishment of the madrasah was initiated by the Muslim community with the aim to provide Islamic education to the general public. However, in the early 1960’s, IAIN was originally established in response to the needs to prepare the ruling educated Muslims for positions at the Religious Ministry and to develop the education system of the pesantren and the madrasah. As part of the Islamic education system, IAIN has a very strong relationship with the madrasah and the pesantren. Since the 1980’s, IAIN has played a huge role in the development and reformation of the education system of the madrasah and the pesantren. The role of IAIN is not limited only to the preparation of religious teachers as it always was in the early years of its establishment. IAIN has greatly contributed to a more enhanced and contextualized understanding and interpretation of Islam. The aforementioned change and roles played by IAIN have encouraged the process of transformation in the education of the madrasah in aspects such as those relating to the institution, thinking, programmes and orientation. During the early years of the independence era (1945), the madrasah was only the centre for producing the ulama (Islamic scholars) and in maintaining the Islamic traditions that were orientated towards the ritual and the spiritual facets alone. Today, the madrasah has developed not only in the ritual-spiritual aspects but also in the social and science aspects. The activities conducted in the madrasah are no longer limited to religious knowledge such as Fiqh, Tasawuf,Tafsir Hadith and Akhlak but also knowledge that is appropriate to the needs of the modern world like Mathematics, Physics, Science, English and ICT. This paper will discuss: the madrasah of today, its reformation and the role of IAIN in the education system reform of the madrasah.

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