An assessment of physical planning of religious school : case study of selected SMAR and SABK in Perak

Abstract

Provision of Islamic religious school in Malaysia is very important as the majority of the populations are Muslims. However, an assessment of school physical facilities carried out on Sekolah Menengah Agama Rakyat (People Religious Secondary School) and Sekolah Agama Bantuan Kerajaan (Government Aided Religious School) in Perak has revealed that these schools are in poor condition and lacking in facilities due to insufficient financial assistance. This study is an attempt to examine the provision and condition of the schools’ physical facilities and to identify the relationship between condition of the school physical facilities and students’ academic performance based on parents’ and teachers’ point of view. Two SMAR and eleven SABK were involved in the study. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey which was administered on 204 parents and 105 teachers and unstructured interviews conducted with the school principals. The school facility inventory and site observation also provided data for the study. The findings showed that only one school was provided with all physical facilities listed in the Jabatan Perancang Bandar dan Desa (Town and Country Planning Department) guideline. There was also a significant relationship between the educational spaces and students’ academic performance based on the parents’ and teachers’ point of view. The result also showed that the main reason parents sent their children to the selected schools was because of the Islamic syllabus offered. Both parents and teachers agreed that the main factor influencing the students’ academic performance was the teaching and learning methodology. It is suggested that the school could be improved through proper maintenance of the physical facilities and better financial assistance. This is to enable students of those schools to improve their academic performance through better quality education.