Introduction

Islamic education has been taught in madrassas throughout India as well as in Assam for centuries but they (madrassas) are not without many shortcomings according to the demands of the times. There are many reasons to these deviations like negligence from the madrassa authorities, teachers, students, society and the Muslim people of the country. It is impossible to eliminate these shortcomings unless everyone thinks together and makes concerted efforts to overcome them. Madrassas do not achieve the expected progress and improvement due to various reasons such as lack of propper curriculum, teaching irregularities, management chaos, shortage of suitable teachers. All of these system irregularities need to be reformed.

However, the ulama and prominent figures of the society have made some efforts to remove such chaos and to provide better quality madrassa’s education. Different people have tried in different ways and different organizations were formed. These individuals and organizations had been making separate efforts for many years which had brought some benefit but it was negligible in view of the demands of the times.

The Azad Education Board and the Tanzim Board were formed for the overall development of Madrassas in Assam. These two boards have been working for the development of Madrassas. There is no doubt about it.

The present Tanzim Board covers most of the Madrassas in Assam and this board conducts only one examination at the end of the year of these Madrassas i.e. annual examination. But they do not conduct half yearly examinations. Therefore, on the advice of Hazrat Maulana Mushtaque Ahmad Anfar Sahab, the All Assam Talimi Taraqqi Board was formed in 2002 with the efforts of Late Hazrat Mufti Sirajuddin Qasimi Sahab. And started to conduct Half Yearly Examinations and inspections of madrassas regularly. This effort improves the educational quality of these madrassas. As a result, their performance in the competitive (annual) examinations of the Tanzim Board was improved significantly. Seeing this, many of the madrassas under the Tanzim Board began to affiliate with the Taraqqi Board.

Objectives of the Board

1. To protect and promote Islamic education.
2. To improve the educational standards of private (Islamic) madrassas and to regulate their internal education system.
3. To maintain the dignity and importance of religious education.
4. Arrangements should be made to provide necessary technical education to the students in every Madrassa.
5. Remove the educational deficiencies of the madrassas and include all madrassas in an up-to-date curriculum.
6. To strengthen mutual coordination and establish cordial relations among the teachers of each Madrassa.
7. Arrangement of “Tadribul Muallimeen” (Teacher’s Training Program) to train and apoint ideal teachers and keeping lists of qualified teachers in the office so that teachers can be sent as per the call of any Madrassa.
8. To make arrangements for the formation of Tanzimul Asatiza (Teacher’s Association).
9. It is essential to inspect the Madrassas under the Board at least three times a year to see whether the teaching and learning is going well as expected for the improvement of education.
10. The Half Yearly Examination should be conducted strictly to improve the quality of education.
11. To encourage the students at least once a year competitions on subjects of Arabic grammar such as Sarf, Nahu, Tafseer of the Qur’an etc should be hold among the students of the Madrassas under the Board and  scholarships and prizes should be distributed to winning students.
12. To provide scholarships to poor talented students.
13. To remove all kinds of obstacles and create an appropriate environment for the development of the natural talents of the students, and to develop the character of each student in the image of the perfect ideals of the holy Islam.
14. Provision of certificates to regularize admission and dismissal of students.
15. To conduct half yearly and annual examinations of all Madrassas under the Board at the same time by designating centers and appointing examiners as required.