Bernama.com
1.‘120 Religious Schools Convert To SABK’ 18 September2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- A total of 120 religious schools throughout the country, including 68 privately-run religious schools (SAR) in Kelantan, are in the process of applying and negotiating for conversion into Government Aided Religious Schools (SABK).
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said besides the 68 SAR in Kelantan, 22 religious schools in Kedah, 27 in Johor, two in Perak and one in Penang had also applied for the conversion.
He said that so far, 57 secondary SAR, five primary SAR, 46 State Religious Schools (SAN) and 11 primary SAN had registered with the Education Ministry for conversion into SABK.
To date, 127 SAR and SAN throughout the country had yet to apply for conversion into SABK.
"If possible, we want the religious schools to emulate the National Type Schools which had long registered with the government to enable aid to be channelled to these schools based on the policies and regulations specified by the government," he said at the national-level SABK Teachers Conference 2007, here today.
2.‘SABK Capable Of Enhancing Students' Potentials, Says PM’ 18 September 2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- The government's move to change the status of the privately-run religious schools (SAR) and State Religious Schools (SAN) to Government Aided Religious Schools (SABK) will raise the potentials of students of these schools through the national education system, said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the national education system offered the best opportunity to the students to realise their potentials to become highly educated individuals including in Islamic education.
"We don't want a situation where students are not given the best possible opportunity to realise their own potentials and we hope that our children will be open minded, magnanimous, of good character and highly capable.
"This is what we want. We don't want them to be narrow-minded and backward in their thinking," he said when opening the national-level SABK Teachers Conference 2007, here today.
Abdullah said the change in the status of SAR and SAN to SABK would also be able to raise the image of Islamic religious education.
He said many religious schools which were previously depending on tithes for their financial resources had changed their status to SABK and had since shown better performance.
"That's why more and more SAR and SAN had registered as SABK. As a result, the students of these schools had gained much benefits," he said.
The Prime Minister said the religious school teachers too had benefited from such a move as they had the opportunity to attend various trainings and courses to better equip themselves as educators.
He said the national education system also gave an opportunity to students of religious schools to shine and pursue further studies.
"Our educational system offers subjects related to Islamic religion which can be used as an option or specialised subject at the higher education level. Students of religious schools can grab this opportunity," he said.
Abdullah said Islamic education in this country had drawn the attention of foreign countries with foreign students pursuing Islamic studies in Malaysia.
"The foreign students are now keen to come here to further their studies in Islamic education. There is now that opportunity, (we) no longer need to go to West Asia," he said.
He said the foreign students who came here for further studies not only acquired the relevant knowledge but also had the opportunity to observe the various cultures of Malaysia's plural society.
At the function, the Prime Minister also witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Negeri Sembilan state government and the Education Ministry to register officially 15 SAR and SAN in the state as SABK.
The MoU was signed by Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan and Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
3.‘PM Wants Fatwa Institution To Be Strengthened’18 September 2007
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants experts in non-religious fields to also be included in the fatwa institution to strengthen it.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Abdullah Md Zin said the Prime Minister was confident that such a move would give the Fatwa Committee more credibility in line with the changing times and the diversity of issues that needed to be tackled now including in the fields of science and technology as well as medicine.
The matter was part of the message conveyed by the Prime Minister in the discussion with members of the Fatwa Committee, the National Council for Islamic Religious Affairs, here today, Dr Abdullah told reporters.
He said: "Our present practice is to invite experts in the relevant fields to give clarifications to the Fatwa Committee, but after this, if there are credible experts, who know about religion in general and are professionals, we hope they can be appointed into the Fatwa Committee."
Earlier, Dr Abdullah was asked to comment on the outcome of the almost two-hour discussion between the Prime Minister and members of the committee who included Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and Perak Mufti Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria.
Commenting further, Dr Abdullah said the Prime Minister also exchanged views with the ulama.
In addition, he said, the Prime Minister also told the committee that the foreign countries, both Muslims and non-Muslims, had responded positively to Malaysia's Islam Hadhari approach.
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