90% of Madrasah Teachers now equipped with Professional Teaching Qualifications

Success of madrasah students, and those sitting for the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) this year which hit record number of 99.6% passes – highest since joining Compulsory Education in 2008 – surely are not coincidences. 

 249 out of 250 students who sat for PSLE in 2019 are eligible to enter secondary school next year.

A media release made by the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) on Thursday (21 Nov) on the results also mentioned that over 90 percent of teachers in madrasah now are equipped with professional teaching qualifications.

This is a result of education sponsorships made by Muis to improve the quality of teaching staff in local madrasah.

These groups of teachers received their Diploma in Education from Edith Cowan, Specialist Diploma in Teaching and Education from the National Institute of Education (NIE) as well as Specialist Diploma in Education and Applied Learning from Republic Polytechnic. 

On their end, the government prepared training support grants of $1,000 for each madrasah teacher teaching language, mathematics and science. Muis will provide the same amount for asatizah teaching religious subjects.

Assistance Disbursed for Madrasah Students amounts to over $867,000 since 2015 

Since introduced in 2007, Muis has been giving out PSLE assistance packages to all full-time madrasah students sitting for PSLE.

The first cohort who benefitted from this package sat for PSLE in 2008 when Compulsory Education was implemented. 

Under the assistance package, all Primary 5 and 6 madrasah students receiving this financial assistance are given opportunities to attend workshops and supplementary classes related to PSLE.

For the last five years, 2,890 full-time madrasah students sitting for PSLE received assistance of $300 each.

This meant that from 2015-2019, $867,000 has been disbursed to support students taking PSLE.

According to Muis, the breakdown of disbursement is as follows:

Article was translated from Malay and was first published in Berita Harian on 21/11/2019: https://berita.mediacorp.sg/mobilem/singapura/90-guru-madrasah-kini-miliki-kelayakan-mengajar-profesional/4366862.html