The Council for Islamic Education and Research (CIER) is part of one of the largest Islamic movements in Kerala. Established in 2002, CIER focuses on creating books for Islamic institutions and training their teachers. Dr. E.K. Ahmad Kutty, former Head of the Arabic Department at Calicut University, is the founder and chairman. Other key members of the CIER’s governing board include Saeed Faruqi, former Chief Instructor at the Government-run Arabic Language Teachers’ Training Institute, Calicut, and N.P. Abdul Ghafoor, former member of the Kerala Government Textbooks Committee.

One of our biggest achievements is creating a new set of textbooks for Islamic institutions. The older textbooks, used for more than 50 years, needed to be updated. While we kept the basic content the same, we made big improvements in style and presentation, using modern, child-friendly, activity-based teaching methods. These changes encourage students to think for themselves rather than just memorizing information.

The new CIER textbooks are filled with colorful pictures, with large, bold lettering in Malayalam and Arabic to make it easier for children to read. Each chapter ends with activities like questions, puzzles, and fill-in-the-blank exercises to make learning enjoyable. We’ve borrowed ideas from textbooks used in Arab countries and also created audio CDs of rhymes from the textbooks. We plan to make visual CDs of lessons for teachers, and we also have audio CDs of the Quran to help children with proper recitation.

CIER believes all classes should be activity-based. For example, instead of simply teaching about zakat (charitable giving), the new textbooks ask children to calculate how much zakat their family should pay by discussing it with their parents. This approach makes learning more practical and involves math skills, while also encouraging children to talk about what they learn at home.

The classes at Islamic institutions in Kerala are held either in the early mornings or late afternoons so students can attend regular school as well. The textbooks cover basic Arabic and Islamic Studies, and we are currently working on books for higher classes. We’ve also developed a summer curriculum for older students and are almost done with two new books for kindergarten students, focusing on values like respect, hygiene, and moral lessons through rhymes and stories.

CIER is also making great progress in training teachers. We run one-month training programs for new teachers and hold two-day refresher courses three times a year for experienced teachers. There are plans to set up a separate teachers’ training institute to promote modern teaching methods.

The CIER textbooks are now being used in other institutions beyond Islamic ones. Many English-medium schools are using them to teach Arabic, and the English version of the Islamic Studies textbooks is also gaining popularity. Our books are being used in institutions run by the Indian Islahi Centres in several Gulf states, where many Malayali Muslims live. To share our model of madrasa education, CIER organized two major conventions—one in Calicut and the other in New Delhi. These events brought together Islamic scholars and educators from across India. While there hasn’t been much practical progress yet, these conventions helped spread awareness about our efforts.