ABSTRACT
The province of Aceh has a long history of Islamic education. It is believed to be the first kingdom in the Malay Archipelago in the 10th century to embrace Islam (Al-Attas, 1970). Aceh was well known as a centre for Islamic education with a long tradition of Islamic intellectualism that dominated the Malay world. At the time, Aceh only had traditional Islamic education institutions known as dayah (religious school) or rangkang (Baihaqi, 1976; Yunus, 1984). This situation persisted until the Dutch colonisation of Aceh whereby a new model of general education was introduced and established in Aceh. As a result, at the end of the colonial period, the dichotomy between the madrasah and the dayah, particularly in the form of curriculum purpose, content and practice had become distinct. However, until the end of Dutch colonization in 1945, the secular model of education offered by the Dutch did not gain the support of the Acehnese, and the handful of local children who attended schools established by the Dutch government belonged mainly to the families of the local aristocrats (Alfian, 1977, p. 9).
