"JQAF" Boosts Malaysian Education

Applying the project of Islam Hadari, Malaysia has launched a new educational program aimed at building the character of Malaysian students in accordance with the Islamic teachings.

"The JQAF educational program is a practical translation of Malaysia-proposed Islam Hadari," Datuk Mohd Nakhaie Ahmad, chairman of the Malaysian Islamic Dakwah Foundation (YADIM), told IslamOnline.net Wednesday, July 27.

Islam Hadhari is the brainchild of Malaysian Premier Abdullah Badawi, who maintains it is derived from the core principles and teachings of Islam.

The concept has the capacity to generate strength for a nation because it gave emphasis to various matters including knowledge, economy, culture, moral values and defense, he believes.

Ahmad said the implementation of the educational program will begin first in the primary grade before being extended to cover other education stages.

"It aims to build the character of the Malaysian pupils in the primary grades to excel the teachings of the Noble Qur'an, the Islamic sciences, Arabic as well as other foreign languages."

JQAF Program

The letters of the JQAF educational program stand for the Malay language (Jawi), the Noble Qur'an (Q), the Arabic Language (A) and the Islamic obligatory duties, Forood (F).

"The program letters stand for four integrated pillars to build a Malaysian character in accordance with an Islamic vision that catches up with tools of the modern age."

"The letter "J", referring to the Malay language (Jawi), stands for the Malaysian heritage," he said.

He added that such efforts mainly aim at reviving the Islamic heritage and history written in the Malay language.

"The letter "Q" refers to the Noble Qur'an to be taken as a way of life, the letter "A" stands for the Arabic language as the main tool to understand the Islamic Textbook, while the letter "F", referring to the Islamic obligatory duties (Forood), urges to pay utmost attention to the Islamic duties in all fields."

To render the program a success, the Malaysian government has launched a parallel project to train teachers to be qualified to implement the program in all educational grades, according to Ahmad.

To realize this end, the Malaysian education ministry had appointed around 30,000 teachers to help implement the program.

Ahmad further stressed that JQAF would not be applied to non-Muslim students at schools, adding they would study a subject on ethics instead.

Religious Education

Ahmad maintained that the Malaysian government is adopting a policy allowing the expansion in constructing religious schools and institutes in the country.

"However, the educational curricula of these schools need development as they only focus on the formal Islamic teachings, without getting deeper into the civilized aspects of Islam."

He pressed the urgency for the construction of more state-run religious schools to help get a deep understanding of the civilized and practical aspects of Islam.

"These schools are educationally well-qualified and provide a higher level of education to Malaysian students, a matter which led to a heavy turnout of Malaysian students to join these schools rather than private religious ones."

The Malaysian government used to provide funds for the construction of private religious schools in many Malaysian states.

But during the era of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamed, the Malaysian government suspended the funds for these schools for what it termed a fallback in fulfilling their message.