Q. Madrasah or National schools for our children?

salem

well..i dont think the madrasahs here have any good impact on the education of some kids. They allowed kids to carry MP3 AND HANDPHONES TO SCHOOL.

And they are under-performance below national avg.

Arent muslims are supposed to strive the best?

I wonder what they teach in madrasah>..

The 1st madrasah is at home. We cant pass the responsiblity of education to the schools.

Asker's comment:

I do not see anything wrong with carrying MP3 and handphones to Madrasah. MP3 can be loaded with the Quran or Islamic songs.

Only 2 madrasahs performed below national average. The rest are doing quite well.

Not all parents are qualified to teach at home, especially in specialised subjects, such as Arabics, Tafsir, Hadith and so on.

Many of the religious teachers in Singapore started from the local Madrasahs.

Last year more than 1000 people applied for primary 1 classes at the madrasah, while there were less than 300 places available. Why the popularity ?

Salaam,

Well....

As z said MP3 player can be loaded with the holy Quran or Islamic songs? But do they? Coming from the age of technology and MTV. I doubt so.

True parents may not be equip to teach specialized subject, but they are vital to ingrain the Islamic way of life, to their children.

As we can see the people of the gulf, they are brought up in an Arab speaking environment, surrounded by all things Islamic, but inward deep down how Muslim are they? Spending their oil money on material things, and self. Yet just up north nearer to Palestine than we are. Able to do more than we are, in terms of financially and location. Yet?

Only Allah swt knows.

The teacher can only do so much.... It is important what the 'teacher' at home does to the young one from the opening of their little eyes from the day they were born... Not the day that they step into school or preschool...

Salaam

Fir

salem brothers

then go ahead with sending ur kids to madrasahs. Its ur choice, cos u own ur kids.

Heard too many stories about the standards of madrasahs so i have NO CONFIDENCE in madrasahs.

Asker's comment:

It is our choice which school to send our children to, no doubt about that.

The first madrasah is at home and it is our duty to ingrain the Islamic way of life to our children, as Ahxuan and Fir had pointed out, There is no disputing this either.

With the introduction of compulsory sitting of PSLE for madrasah students and with recent marked improvements of their PSLE results, sending our kids for madrasah education is now a credible alternative.

One concern I have about national school is that the CCA often clash with prayer time. Kids , excited about their CCA, need constant reminder about their solat obligation.

well i heard madrasahs teachers are not paid sometimes for their salaries. so i wonder the commitments level as a teacher, we cant help to realise we are living in a country that needs money to survive.

You may argue about the 'below national average' standard of Madrasahs, but actually it all depends on the child itself. I am speaking from my own experience and I am the only Madrasah student in my extended family. I don't want to brag but if I were to compare my GCE O Level results with my cousins, mine is way better. Unlike me, my cousins couldn't even get into one of the national JCs.

So before making hasty generalisations, you better do your research and not just depend on hearsay. You may have heard of stories about madrasah students although I am not sure what exactly they are regarding and how credible they are. But open your eyes, Madrasah shouldn't be blamed totally.

Asker's comment:

Ah Xuan,
I used to have the same misconceptions about Madrasah education, being a place for drop-outs and being poorly managed.

After following closely their developments for a couple of years, we decided to send our 3rd child to the Al-Irsyad madrasah and were lucky enough to get a place for the 2009 intake, after passing the entrace test.

Soon we have to decide, where to send the rest of our children for their primary school education. We are also considering whether to transfer our 2 elder children to the Madrasah.

Madrasah education is more expensive, with no subsidy from the goverment. We also have to forgo benefits like Edusave. Being in the top 10% , my children also received yearly Edusave Bursaries and Scolarships.

Nur,
Thank you for the first hand account. Together we can build the Madrasahs into a place of excellence.

well well who is good in arabic? i need an arabic teacher to teach my boy arabic language, from written language to spoken language, quran recitation.

Any muslims willing to do part-time? The lesson must be interesting to engage my boy. No boring lessons, please.

Nur r u good in arabic? maybe u can want to help me out here? :)

Alhamdulillah I'd love to teach your boy Arabic.
But right now I am in Egypt pursuing my degree in Al-Azhar University.

I used to teach my cousin Arabic before I came here, though.

There are a lot of programs in the mosques in Singapore, providing classes and even private tutors (especially in quran recitation) , you might want to ask around.

Other than that, you might want to try http://simplyislam.com.sg/

I am not sure how old your boy is, where you stay, etc so I can't really help much right now. But like I said, you can try asking around the people at the mosques near your home.

and...Allah knows best.

Asker's comment:

I just found this article recently.

Those who are interested can read it here;

http://www.google.com/hostedne...