ABSTRACT
Functionalization of the national education in general and Islamic education in particular entails two interrelated integral aspects: standardization and nationalization. Nationalization of education involves attempts by the state to build more national public schools and incorporate more privately run schools into the national education system. The chapter starts with an overview of the organizational structure and functions of the state institutions and types of Islamic schools that comprise the Islamic education system in Indonesia and Malaysia. It discusses educational policies during the late colonial period (late 1800s to 1950s) when the Dutch and the British tried to introduce and implement mass education in the Netherlands East Indies and Malaya, respectively. The chapter argues that the state in Malaysia has been more effective in minimizing the influences from the social forces, thus allowing it to assert more control over national education in the country, especially Islamic education, compared to the state in Indonesia.
