Demand for tahfiz schools

I AM a mother of seven children – five boys and two girls. Two of them are huffaz, which means they have completed memorisation of the entire Quran. One is in the midst of completing the process. My three youngest children are being trained in Raudhatul Huffaz, a non-governmental organisation tahfiz tuition I founded in 2014.

Raudhatul Huffaz currently has 53 branches nationwide, catering to more than 987 primary level students annually.

Fifty percent of the students are funded by the surplus income of Raudhatul Huffaz, which aims to produce future leaders inculcated with the culture of excellence and love for the Quran. We aim to inspire children to achieve high standards, emulating the intellectual giants of the Islamic Golden Age such as Ibn Sina, Ibn Haitham and Ibn Firnas.

We place great importance on both worldly and spiritual knowledge as it is evident in today’s world that an education model stressing on one but not the other is grossly deficient.

Tahfiz schools are in high demand as more and more parents see the deficiencies of a purely worldly education.

This is not just a phenomenon among the rural folk as many highly-educated professionals today are also placing importance on memorisation of the Quran and spiritual knowledge for their children.

However, not everyone has access to excellent tahfiz schools. Students with poor results at primary level whose parents are not financially able will resort to any kind of tahfiz available. It is also well known that there are irresponsible parents with problematic children who dump their kids in tahfiz schools, hoping that some miracle would happen to make them develop good behaviour.

As such, I was deeply disturbed by the news of the alleged molestation of children by the principal of a tahfiz school recently.

There have been many knee-jerk reactions calling for the closure of tahfiz schools due to these incidents, overlooking the fact that there are many tahfiz schools doing valuable work for the community. At the same time, it is crucial that we take a serious view on what happened to the children and strive to make sure it doesn’t recur.

In my view, the problems can be organised into four levels:

1. Microsystem (focuses on the child): The safety of the child must be placed as a top priority, over-riding all other issues. This is in line with the maqasid shariah principle of preservation of life. All children, regardless of what school they go to, should be taught the concepts of safe and unsafe touch and briefed on what action to take should something happen to them or they hear or see something inappropriate happening to another child. Parents must take seriously any complaints or hints that something inappropriate is going on. They must never belittle what their children are reporting.

2. Mesosystem (encapsulates immediate family, schools, religious institutions, peers and healthcare services): It is crucial for parents of children attending tahfiz schools to have an open channel communication with them and remain close friends and confidantes. Parents must take keen interest in the set-up of the school, qualifications and previous records of the teachers, and safety features. Social services should visit the schools regularly to check on the physical and emotional wellbeing of the children. Fire department inspectors should also conduct regular visits on the premises to ensure they comply with fire and safety regulations.

3. Exosystem (involves media, social welfare services, legal services and community representatives): At the state or federal level, we must insist on registration of all tahfiz schools. There must no longer be any excuses as the safety of our children is paramount. A registered tahfiz school must comply with all parameters related to safety and standards.

Tahfiz schools that do not comply with the stated regulations cannot be registered and must not admit students until they are. A grace period can be set to give these schools time to comply. A budget should also be allocated to assist in carrying out the modifications needed to meet compliance. Schools operating without registration must be reported to the authorities. A sexual offenders registry also needs to be established and made public to ensure that no school unknowingly employs staff with a history of sexual offences.

4. Macrosystem (attitudes and ideologies): Parents need to understand that tahfiz schools cannot be used as a dumping ground for their badly-behaved children. Parents need to buck up and take parenting and discipline seriously.

In the current era of rank hypersexuality, unrestricted Internet pornography and the rising number of paedophiles, tahfiz institutions, or anyone involved in the care of children for that matter, need to be better trained to screen and monitor staff as well as students.

Although this is easier said than done, serious efforts need to be made to clamp down on pornography, which is causing unprecedented levels of disruption in the family institution and also affects society at large.

We must recognise pornography for the vile disease that it is and take drastic measures to remove this abhorrence from our society.

The hard reality is that tahfiz schools are in very high demand and mushrooming as a result. There are many excellent tahfiz institutions dedicated to raising the bar for quality education not provided by other schools.

The hifz endeavour is here to stay and that is a blessing for our society.

So, instead of calling for the collective closure of tahfiz institutions, serious effort needs to be taken to regulate them for quality and safety. As a start, the publication of a list of registered tahfiz schools would be most welcomed.