As a mother of two daughters and one of them is a 6-year-old, I wonder how early do parents plan and decide on the educational route their children will be taking? There are so many considerations to factor. For someone who went through the secular education in Singapore, I never thought that I would consider a madrasah education for my child.
Firstly, it is because both my husband and I do not know what to expect since we did not go through a madrasah education. Of course, we were sent to part-time madrasah classes as children but this is a full-time madrasah that we are talking about here. A child in primary school will be juggling eight subjects instead of four subjects like those who are in government schools. Are we equipped to support our child through this journey?
When our firstborn, Azeen was turning three, I knew that I wanted her to go to a kindergarten with an Islamic environment as I believe that habits need to be cultivated from young. I had slowly built up her vocabulary in English, Malay and Arabic from the moment she could start talking at 2 years old.
When she was three, she progressed to memorising daily duaas and surahs.
When she was four, I started finding out more about the requirements to enter Madrasah by speaking to other parents and researching online.
For parents who are keen to start educating your child in Arabic language, even if you are not planning to enrol them for a full-time madrasah education, I highly recommend that you visit this website to get educational resources and worksheets. Websites like this, YouTube Videos on islamic stories, apps like Miraj Stories are some of the useful tools to cultivate the love of Allah and Rasul in young children. It is also helpful that there is an increasing number of learning resources that supports Islamic learning available readily in online stores now.
Here are some online shops in Singapore that sells Islamic educational resources and materials:
- Hayyan Kids
- By Little Ms Rainbow
- Swing by Suhaim
- Buat Si Manja
- Eva Fun Learning
I have always loved enrolling both girls in literacy programs or programs on arts or science that integrate Islamic values. I religiously follow instagram accounts like @ourgreatatfal, @littlefikra, @littlequrankids @zazuartz for updates on short workshops for the girls to play and learn.
Anyway, back to my story... Last year when Azeen turns five, I asked her if she wants to go to a madrasah or national school. I explained to her the pros and cons and her response made me more certain than ever that I want to enrol her in a madrasah. We worked hard together, printing worksheets, practising penmanship, reading, memorising but of course we played hard too. I stopped taking freelance projects from November last year until her test in April this year to focus on her preparation for the Madrasah Entrance Test that all madrasah hopefuls need to go through.
We made lots of supplications and whenever it rains, Azeen will run to me and remind me to make a specific duaa together with her for her to enter Al-Ma'arif. Aaah.. this brings us to another topic. Now that we know that we want to enrol her in a madrasah, which one will it be?
For primary school, there are 4 madrasahs that we can apply for: Al-Ma'arif, Wak Tanjong, Alsagoff and Al-Irsyad.
So... what is the difference?
Basically, the difference lies in the school's mission, location, number of intake and the gender of students. Al-Ma'arif and Alsagoff are girls' schools while Wak Tanjong and Al-Irsyad are mixed-gender schools. The highest number of student intake will be Al-Irsyad as the school is bigger compared to the others. We attended open houses and forums to have a better understanding so that we are able to make an informed choice. You can also follow @sgmadrasah on Instagram to learn more on the different madrasahs.
I prefer for my girls to be in a girls' school for a number of reasons. Coming from a girls' school myself, I feel that the absence of boys contributes to increased confidence in girls and they are not shy to speak up. There are more reasons for this but this will just make me digress further.
Once we had decided on the school, we had to wait for the information on when to apply. It is a short window period to apply and we were stalking the school's website and social media almost daily when the period was drawing near. Sometime in April, we had to submit an online application. Some of the questions really made me pause and ponder e.g. what do I want my child to work as, which route do I want her to take at tertiary level, which university that I want her to go etc
We had to wait for around two weeks and once shortlisted, we received an invite for the Madrasah Entrance Test. The test that we have all been anxious about. It is time for tawakkal and lots of duaa since we have already done our part in investing much time and effort to prepare ourselves and our children. The test for the children has both written and oral components. For English, Malay, Mathematics and Arabic, they are required to do written papers. The questions are actually basic questions that they would have studied for in kindergarten but there are some parts that would have required advance learning. For oral, they are tested on the memorisation of surahs and short duaas.
Parents are also needed to attend an interview session so that the school can assess if the values and mission are aligned. Due to the high demand, the schools need to have all these in place to filter accordingly. This is also to manage expectations and to ensure that both children and parents do not have skewed expectations of a madrasah education system. Most madrasahs are oversubscribed twice the available capacity. e.g. intake is 70 but there are 150 applicants
A madrasah is a private institution and therefore do not have as much funding as a government school.
In addition, a madrasah student needs to juggle more subjects and thus, there would be certain values and discipline level to adhere to in order to excel. Honestly, I feel that the number of subjects is not a major cause of concern for me as it is comparable to students in secular schools who have to attend enrichment classes, piano lessons, swimming lessons after school.
Now, some of you may ask... how to prepare?
We are lucky now that there are centres like As-Souq Arabic Centre that designs P1-Preparatory Programs to alleviate the stress for parents. The program is structured and the students get to be prepared on all 4 subjects under one roof. There are also some parents who hire private tutors for a personal session in the comforts of their own home.
For Azeen, I prepared her on my own through consistent practice. There was much discipline needed on my end to keep to the routine. There were times that I falter and times that I question myself if I was doing enough. I was tremendously fortunate that Allah bless me with Azeen who loves to consume new knowledge and has a good attention span. Occasionally, I will sign her up for programs to excite her further on learning. The key word is consistency. Being self-employed allows me to plan my schedule and cater to the kids' learning accordingly. Honestly, she memorises more surahs than me and whenever I am teaching her a new surah, it gives me the opportunity to memorise together with her and it became an enriching parent-bonding activity as we go through line-by-line analysing the meaning and reading the tafseer together.
Alhamdulillah, we got the results for the application in May and Azeen will be starting her journey in Al-Ma'arif in 2020. There is an 8-weeks preparatory course that is compulsory for the students so that it will be a smooth transition to Primary One. Parents can also sign-up for an optional Arabic workshop organised by the school with the intention of guiding parents to assist their children in their homework. Education is really a partnership between the school and parents.
It did cross my mind on the what-if(s). What if we were not successful?
We had prepared ourselves mentally and talked to Azeen that even if she were to go to a secular school, we will still strive to practise the habits that have been cultivated since young. In Iman Kindergarten, she is used to reading the daily duaas, Yassin, Asmaul-Husna during assembly and naturally it was a concern for us that the daily routine and good habits will be affected.
I believe that with the right intentions and lots of supplications, Allah knows what is best for all us and we just need to trust in Allah's plans for us. I hope that this sharing will not be taken out of context. My primary intention is to share with other parents who might have little or no idea on what to expect if you are keen to try your child out for a full-time madrasah education. No one school is better than the other. Every parent wants the best for our child and may we be guided to always be on the righteous path.
And those who say: “Our Lord! Bestow on us from our spouses & our offspring the coolness of our eyes & make us leaders of the God-fearing.”
{Surat Al-Furqan 25: 74}
Now, it is time to prepare playful Ayra for her entrance test next year. Her learning style is very different from Azeen and I am still figuring out the best way to cater to her learning style. Parenting is a lot on figuring things out as we go along, isn't it? Please make duaa for us.
