Full-time madrasah education in Singapore : a study of the student enrolment policy and its implications

Abstract

Full-time madrasahs in Singapore are regulated by the secular government, despite being classified as private schools. As they cater for Muslim students only, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has categorised them as private school and denied them from getting any government aids. They also imposed strict policies towards their administration by requiring madrasahs to pass a benchmark at least twice during each three-year assessment period to open for Primary One enrolment. New students are restricted to only 400 each year. To meet this benchmark, madrasahs enforce challenging placement tests for all its applicants to get the best students. These policies cost the Muslim community their right to obtain madrasah education for their children while having to compete with one another for a place in one of the madrasahs. The rest of the community are required by the law to enrol their children into national schools and have to settle for Islamic education on part-time basis only. Many studies have analysed these policies and their impacts on the madrasahs, but none has examined the problems and challenges they have created for madrasah applicants and how they have affected the Muslim community. This research conducted qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection to study the impacts of these policies on the madrasahs, the Muslim community and Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), the government agency running the madrasahs. It analyses the feedbacks from the Muslim community via questionnaires on the madrasah education system and interviews with MUIS officers to understand their position as madrasah administrators. Although the study invited madrasahs to take part, many refused to give their feedbacks. Based on its findings, the study indicated that the root cause of the problems stems from the lack of government support. To alleviate this longstanding issue, the study suggests converting madrasahs from private schools to government-aided schools to resolve their financial and staffing woes. The study also calls for the community to be more proactive in keeping themselves informed of madrasah issues and for MUIS to be transparent in its madrasah policies and its objectives aligned with the community. Madrasahs can improve on their entrance tests to make it less stressful for the young applicants. The outcome of the study is a humble attempt to raise awareness of the recurring madrasah problems to the society and preferably those in positions of power to consider improving the current system. Ultimately, its primary goal is to return to Singaporean Muslims their rights to attain holistic education in full-time madrasahs.