KUCHING: Discussion is on-going to decide whether all Islamic religious schools and tahfiz centres should be registered with the Education Ministry.
Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof said the discussion between the ministry and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has yet to produce any outcome.
“At present, issues affecting Islamic religious schools and tahfiz centres comes under the prerogative of Islamic religious department in the respective states. However, there are also suggestions for the schools and centres to be registered with the ministry.
“Both the ministry and Jakim have formed a technical committee to deliberate this matter and we have yet to make any conclusion,” he told reporters here today.
Khair, however, was unable to give any deadline when the matter would be resolved.
“Recently Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that a special meeting would be held soon. The meeting will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” he said.
The meeting to be convened on Tuesday was a result of the tragic fire incident at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah Religious Residential Centre in Kuala Lumpur which claimed the lives of 21 students and two wardens.
On another matter, Khair said the ministry wanted to emulate the steps taken by the state government in addressing schools with low enrolment or Sekolah Kurang Murid (SKM) in Sarawak.
“We applauded the efforts initiated by the state government in addressing this issue," he said.
The education department and associated agencies had held discussions two months ago and were currently visiting various districts and meeting parents of children in low enrolment schools to get their views.
It was reported that there are 651 schools with less than 150 pupils in Sarawak and 1,004 schools with less than 300 pupils.
Earlier, Khair launched the ministry’s two-day Education Tour here. Kuching is the tour’s ninth stop after Sungai Petani in Kedah, Kuala Terengganu (Terengganu), Ayer Keroh (Melaka), Selayang (Selangor), Johor Baru (Johor), Seremban (Negri Sembilan), Kota Baru (Kelantan) and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah).