Dear Najmul,

I think, first, you have to determine more precisely your objective, the targeted market, and the people you  want to reach. Then, you can build a survey efficiently. You can't do research on tall Indian people if they are interested in these kind of schools but you should focus your investigation in a smaller territory. That would be my advice before you begin your study.

I hope I could help. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any other help.

With my best regards,

Dimitri

Dear Najmul,

Dimitri raises some important issues.

Especially regarding your objective. Other issues  you will need to take on board:

Geographic location: State level? Also regulation at this level- each State have their own policy governing Islamic education. A pan India survey would be problematic and logistically prohibitive.

 There seems to a argument/definition in what constitutes Islamic education and what 'subjects' outside Islamic teaching could/should be also  be taught e.g. Maths Science etc.

What does sustainability mean? in this study context? are you just dealing with funding (internal or external) or a more wider context including social/human capital.

I would recommend that you re-focus your research to be more manageable and achievable. This would allow a positive collaboration with others when the research study is more precise.

All the Best

Rob

Dear Najmul, dear Robert,

I can't agree more with your, Robert!

Concerning "sustainability", as you say, Najmul has to redefine the context. I would add that he also has to define, what kind of Islamic schools he wants to analyze (private, public, private/public?) and which goal schools are built for (making money, help religious authorities, bring more general education to people).

I think in one word: Be a way more precise! I am sure Robert will agree.

Have fun in you research and all the best.

Regards,

Dimitri

Dear Najmul,

Hopefully both Dimitri and myself have given some direction (fruitful- I hope) and further thought regarding your research project.

In what way is the Literature on FBO's (Islamic) regarding their delivery of education leading you? in defining your investigation? and the identification of the problems/opportunities? A number of articles by Clarke, the United Nations (UN) covering both Asia and Africa would be a good reference point.

Would like to hear your thoughts.

Regards

Rob

Thank you very much Dimitri and Robert ! In fact all the suggestions made by you are valuable and will certainly help me avoid future problems in the research. 

I agree on the scale of survey. In fact I have already identified a state to conduct the study. 

I am actually trying to extend my PhD research further to assess the role of FBOs in education. Clarke and Jennings, Harper, Sider, etc have documented cases and empirical findings on the role of FBOs in development sector. In my PhD I was focusing more on the microfinance but when I am trying to study the overall impact, social capital will need to cover larger areas of impact.

In the proposed research, I am actually trying to study if the Muslim Faith-based school may be positioned alongwith the mainstream schools. Sustainability, what I perceive at this stage, is funding (cash flow), quality of the product, acceptability, growth, contribution to the society. These are vague right now.

Your suggestion also provided me with a new direction - that to study the existing schools. That should provide a more definite picture of the internal strengths and weaknesses of these institutions, their modus operandi. Initially I was thinking of assessing the potential/demand for such schools by parents. But it will be more beneficial to study the existing institutions

I will keep updating the progress and also share the final research proposal. I will appreciate if anyone shares literature (reports/articles) here or on my id - [email protected]

Hi Najmul,

Glad to be of help, here are link to some papers that might help in forming a definition, the mapping of the organisations (and type re: Dimitri) in the state that you have selected and what as been previously investigated:

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/government-society/rad/working-papers/wp-28.pdf

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/government-society/rad/working-papers/wp-38.pdf

http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/NGPA/publications/WP41_FaithOrgs_Bano_Web.pdf

http://southasiaanalysis.org/paper730

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/8473/12/12_chapter%202.pdf

https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=410506

https://www.thecho.in/files/status-of-islamic-studies---madrasa-education-in-india.pdf

I think that's enough to keep you busy.

Another important issue is how you are going to quantify or measure especially quality, contribution and the other issues that you select.

At present I can not find exact 'size'  and the number of, or nature of Islamic educational organisations in India (primary, secondary and tertiary level) again I haven't seen what level or levels you are planning to investigate

By the way I am investigating FBO's characteristics in the UK

Keep in Touch

Rob

Dear Najmul Huda

I think first thing for you would be to delimit your market to a city. Then, I think you should go for a baseline KAP (Knowledge, attitudes, and practices) survey of your intended market. For this you wo

uld nerd to be very very specific on the objectives of your survey. Of course you would need to go for some kind of non-probability quota sampling. But prior to this you would need to conduct a series of focus groups with informed subjects so that you are able to successfully create outlines (capturing various dimensions of the issues and also the segmentation of your target market on Islamic FBO) of the KAP survey. So the kind of the survey instrument you can come up with will determine the usefulness of the knowledge you can create thru the baseline KAP survey.