What is "qawmi"

Qawmi (; also variously phonetically transliterated as Quawmi, Quomi, Qaumi, Qaumee, Kawmi, or Qawmy) is an adjective describing one of the two major madrasah educational categories in Bangladesh. The Qawmi madrasahs are not regulated by the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board. As private charitable organizations, Qawmi madrasahs are supported almost exclusively by donation.

The theological curriculum of the Qawmi madrasahs predominantly follow the Islamic Deobandi model. In the past, the degrees they conferred lacked accreditation or official recognition unlike those conferred by official Alia madrasahs (also spelled "Aliya" and "Aliah"), which follow the Calcutta Alia tradition. Starting in 2006, two years after the founding of the privately run Befaqul Mudarressin education board for Qawmi madrasahs, the Bangladeshi government began to recognize some Qawmi degrees.

As of 2006, there were approximately 15,000 registered Qawmi madrasahs in Bangladesh, with 200,000 teachers educating 4 million students. Actual figures are unknown and Qawmi madrasas do not keep enrollment records. Moreover, it has been argued that if unregistered Qawmi madrasahs were counted then it could put the total number of Bangladeshi madrasahs as high as 64,000—suggesting that Qawmi madrasahs outnumber their official Alia counterparts (of which 25,201 existed in 2004).