The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) will disburse S$500,000 to the six full-time madrasahs* in Singapore due to COVID-19. This one-off disbursement, in view of the challenges faced by the madrasah sector during the ongoing pandemic, will go towards supporting the madrasahs' student programmes. About 3,500** madrasah students will benefit from this support.
Madrasahs rely heavily on the support of the community. They are supported through school fees and grants from various sources such as the Mosque Building and Mendaki Fund (MBMF), Baitulmal, zakat, Dana Madrasah, Wakaf Ilmu and government funding***. These mostly go towards madrasahs' manpower and training expenses. Madrasahs regularly undertake fundraising to supplement the shortfall for the school operational and student programme needs.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, madrasahs have had to suspend or cancel several fundraising events. It was also more difficult for donors to come physically to the madrasahs to donate. This has resulted in a substantial shortfall in revenue from typical fundraising sources and donation drives, such as collection during Friday congregational prayers. In addition, the implementation of safe management measures at the madrasahs has increased their operational costs.
In view of this, Muis had earlier worked with the madrasahs to develop and launch the OurMadrasah.sg portal on 4 December 2020. The community public education and fundraising portal aims to expand outreach and update the public about Singapore's madrasahs through videos, articles and writeups. The platform also serves to provide a seamless payment gateway which will be easier for the community to make one-off or recurring donations via credit or debit card, eNETS, PayNow and GIRO.
Over the last few weeks, about S$50,000 has already been raised online. Muis said. Donors can choose the madrasah they wish to donate to, or request that the money is distributed across all madrasahs.
Esa Masood, Chief Executive of Muis, said: "As key institutions for the Muslim community in Singapore, our madrasah leaders,teachers and students have adapted well to the challenging situation over the past year and have continued to perform well. This disbursement signifies Muis' continued support for our madrasahs. We urge the community to rally together and continue to stand in solidarity with our madrasahs so that they can continue the important work to nurture the next generation of asatizah to guide our community."
Asatizah refer to religious teachers.
Details:
Support madrasahs in the 2021 academic year
*The six full-time madrasahs are Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Alsagoff Al-Arabiah, Madrasah Al Arabiah Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Al-Ma’arif Al-Islamiah and Madrasah Wak Tanjong Al-Islamiah.
**Data from madrasah returns in June 2020.
***This specifically covers Edusave and teacher development for secular subjects (See the Singapore Prime Minister’s speeches at the 2013 and 2015 National Day Rallies respectively).