Formal schooling in the context of the Madrasah education sector in the Philippines is composed of about 7 levels.
- 1-year Tahderiyyah (kindergarten). Colloquially labelled as "Grade zero", this is the grade level for many Muslim children who have not reached the then beginning school-age of 7 years old. (according to DepEd, the minimum age for grade 1 now is 6 years old; which will also impact on the admission for madrasah-based tahderiyyah). Recently, a new "balanced" tahderiyyah curriculum has been developed by the Bangsamoro Development agency (BDA), UNICEF and their partners. This curriculum was used by DepEd Co to developed their own version. More than 300 tahderiyyah centers/classes are implementing in School Year 2011-12.
- 4-year Ibtida-i (primary level) equivalent to grades 1 to 4. In many traditional madaris, a graduation is organized as a sign of its completion and to signal movement towards the next higher level. This is the most widespread education level in Moro communities.
- 4-year Idadi (intermediate level) equivalent to grades 5 to 8. An integrated curriculum called "Standard Madrasah Curriculum" (after revision, labelled as "Revised Madrasah Curriculum") that brings together the national curriculum and core aspects of the traditional weekend madrasah has been adopted by DepEd. However, it currently follows the 6-year levels of elementary education.
- 4-year Thanawi (secondary level). For some this is considered junior college (to differentiate from kulliyah) or senior high school ( to differentiate from Idadi, which is sometimes referred to as junior high school). In many remote Moro communities in Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan, a holder of a thanawi certificate (shahadah) is allowed to teach and considered a beginning guro (teacher). as they mature with age and experience, many gain prominent role in the community such as Imam (religious leader), khatib (Mosque scribe) and bilal (in charge of call to prayer). In mainland Mindanao, they are address as ustadz (male) and ustadza (female). In the Sulu archipelago, they are address as kah tuan (male) and kah dayang (female).
- 4-year Kulliyah (college level) is the degree-awarding level. There are a handful of these institutions locally and courses are also limited to 2-3 on average. There are also government universities offering college level Islamic studies program, however the quality of instruction and their graduates are not highly esteemed within the ulama (religious scholars). Many members of the ulama are overseas graduates mainly through scholarships provided by host countries. Most of them are graduates from the Middle East. There are also graduates from Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Iran.
- There are a handful of graduates of master's and doctoral programs ( majistir and duktur, respectively). Only graduates of prominent overseas universities are highly esteemed. Most of these graduates come from Lanao areas, such as Dr Mahid Mutilan and Dr Hamid Barra.
Challenges
- While there is apparent similarities, traditional madaris developed their own curriculum (structure, content, standards). This implies, there is no uniformity across; except for a few that is part of a network or annex campuses to a main madrasah. The issue here is not uniformity of content, but establishing learning standards, i.e. to ensure that all Thanawi graduates meet the minimum learning expectations.
- Often, the curriculum is also influenced by from where the madrasah owner graduated from. The Moro communities in the Philippines are traditionally Sunni. The culture and norms evolved of the community evolved from the Shafi-i school of jurisprudence. Overseas graduates are exposed and taught jurisprudence of their host country. There is a need to reconcile the two thinking. This is most urgent given that a number of these scholars are now saying, there should be only one jurisprudence; aside from creating friction with the traditional beliefs system, this exclusive thinking would marginalize and ostracize religious minorities.
- Without a uniform structure, transfer and transition will be interpreted variably to the disadvantage of the affected students. There is also a tendency towards elitism or "ours is better than yours thinking" which contravenes Islam's egalitarian principle.
