YAN: The federal government is always committed and ready to assist in improving the quality of education in private religious schools (SARs) with various forms of assistance, said Tan Sri Muhyddin Yassin.
The Deputy Prime Minister said there was nothing as important to the federal government as seeing children of the SAR system stay within the national education system.
“On this, the federal government offers opportunities for SARs to become government-aided religious schools (SABKs).
“There should be strong cooperation… It is not the intention of the federal government to take over SARs,” said Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, yesterday.
He was speaking at a meeting with SAR and ‘Pondok Tahfiz’ heads throughout Kedah at Sekolah Menengah Agama Taufikiah Khairiah Alhalimiah in Padang Lumat here.
Muhyiddin said the responsibility to educate children is akin to fufilling Islam’s ‘fardu kifayah’ which must be carried out properly to ensure the quality of education delivered is systematic and thorough.
“Some have alleged the federal government neglected the principles of Islamic teachings, it is a lie and the statement can be refuted with what we have done,” he said.
On this, he said he hoped that the founders of SARs who have not accepted the offer of the government to become SABKs to reconsider to preserve the religious education heritage.
At the ceremony, Muhyiddin announced an allocation of RM50,000 for 12 SARs and RM20,000 for seven pondok tahfiz in the state. — Bernama