Speech by Chief Executive of Muis, Hj Abdul Razak Maricar at the Islamic Education Fund (IEF) Disbursement Ceremony

SATURDAY 10 OCTOBER 2015 IN MUIS AUDITORIUM, BRADDELL ROAD 

Menteri Perhubungan dan Penerangan, dan Menteri
Bertanggungjawab bagi Ehwal Masyarakat Islam
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim

Timbalan Pengarah Kurikulum dan Belia,
Ustazah Sharifah Farah Aljunied

Para Mudirah dan pentadbir pusat-pusat aLIVE Mudirah

Ibu bapa dan anak-anak
Hadirin yang di hormati sekelian

 

    Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh

  1. Alhamdulillah, dengan kurnia nikmat Allah swt, kita dapat bersama hari ini di Majlis Pengagihan Dana Pendidikan Islam 2015 . Majlis ini merupakan lambang keprihatinan Muis kepada bidang pendidikan Islam untuk anak-anak kita. Semenjak Muis melancarkan program aLIVE pada tahun 2004, pusat-pusat pendidikan di masjid telah menerima lebih 18,000 pelajar, dibimbing oleh lebih 600 asatizah bertauliah dan terlatih. Semua ini berlaku dengan izin Allah dan berkat kesedaran tentang peri pentingnya pendidikan Islam demi membentuk akhlak dan peribadi masyarakat Islam kita.

  2. Muis berpegang kepada prinsip bahawa setiap anak harus diberikan peluang menerima pendidikan Islam. Kita tidak ingin ada yang tercicir dan ketinggalan semata-mata kerana tidak mampu menghadiri kelas-kelas agama. Untuk itu, kami memperuntukkan sebahagian dari kutipan zakat untuk Dana Pendidikan Islam (IEF). Semenjak tahun 2004 hingga 2014, kami telah mengagihkan sebanyak $3 juta yang digunakan untuk membiayai yuran bulanan serta bahan pendidikan untuk 10,000 pelajar yang memerlukan. Pada tahun lalu, kami menyemak semula ukurtara kelayakan IEF agar lebih ramai pelajar layak menerima bantuan.

  3. Alhamdulillah, semenjak semakan ini, kami telah pun dapat membantu seramai 788 pelajar baru atau tambahan sebanyak 29%. Tahun ini sahaja sehingga akhir September 2015, Muis membantu sejumlah 3,500 pelajar melalui agihan sebanyak $1.25 juta. Ini merupakan sebuah tambahan 26% berbanding tahun 2014, dan jumlah terbesar yang diagihkan semenjak Dana IEF ditubuh sebelas tahun lalu.

  4. Insya Allah Muis akan meneruskan usaha memperkasakan dan memperluaskan Pendidikan Islam untuk anak-anak kita. Kini izinkan saya berbicara dalam Bahasa Inggeris.

    Ladies and gentlemen,

  1. The Prophet s.a.w. always paid special attention to imparting good values and nurturing strong religious understanding among the young.This sunnah has always been Muis’ source of inspiration for nurturing religously resilient and morally strong children and youth through our Islamic education system for the young.

  2. Accordingly, we strive to ensure that our Islamic Education programmes take into account contemporary issues and provide relevant guidance for our young in their daily lives. Alhamdulillah, 
    since its inception in 2004, aLIVE has grown in its reach and we now have more than 18,000 of our young attending aLIVE as part of the mosque madrasahs religious education programme. To support the mosque aLIVE centres, we now have 600 trained asatizahs conducting aLIVE lessons island wide. And with the support of parents like yourselves today, we hope for this number to continue growing and for many more young to benefit from religious education.

  3. In realising this vision, Muis is committed to ensuring that Islamic Education is accessible to all and is affordable for everyone. Itis our hope that parents like you and many others will help in ensuring that no child is deprived of Islamic education.

  4. We are aware that some parents may have difficulty paying fees. In 2004, Muis set up the Islamic Education Fund or IEF to help families send their children to study in our aLIVE mosque centres. A total of $3m has been used to help over 10,000 students from 2004 to 2014. The funds were used to defray the costs of their monthly fees and learning materials. In order for us to reach to more families to provide their children with Islamic Education, Muis reviewed its policy on IEF in 2014 so that it can benefit many more children. It has been a year since that review.

  5. In the revised IEF, students from families with a per capita income or PCI of $500 & below can now qualify for the Needy Student Grant. This is an increase from the previous PCI limit of $450
    & below. Eligible students will have their fees subsidised up to $400 per year. Students will then pay about $5 or lesser for their monthly fees. Alhamdulillah, after the PCI review, 600 new students were able to qualify for the IEF in 2015.

  6. Families whose PCI is between $501 to $750 can also benefit from the Family Support Rebate (FSR) scheme. These families can receive a two month rebate of their school fees. This would mean that parents with three children in the mosque madrasah will be eligible for six months’ worth of savings for their fees. I am happy to announce that 188 new students benefitted from this FSR scheme in 2015, an increase of more than 400%.

  7. In total, I am pleased to share that the revision of IEF last year has enabled Muis to assist a total of 788 new beneficiaries, a 29% increase compared to the number of IEF recipients previously. In total, Muis is expected to disburse $1.25m from the IEF, assisting more than 3,500 students throughout 2015. This is an additional 26% or $260,000 more than what we did last year. In fact, this is the highest amount Muis has expended for IEF since the inception of IEF 11 years ago. Insya Allah, with the continued support from the community and increase in zakat collection, Muis is committed and will continue to help more families in the coming years.

  8. Alhamdulillah, today, we have aLIVE and mosque madrasah coordinators and students from all our mosque clusters receiving letters indicating the IEF support allocated to them. To parents out there, we do hope you can visit the nearest mosque where you reside to discuss how you can be assisted to take advantage of this scheme and at the same time, enrol your child to attend our mosque madrasah if you have not done so.

  9. Ladies and gentlemen,

  10. I would like to thank the community for supporting the work of Muis together with our mosque partners. Muis and the mosques remain committed in ensuring that Islamic education is within reach and continue to appeal and attract our young. Your doa, support and involvement will be important as we work towards increasing our reach to our community and connecting families to our mosques so that our children can benefit from the easy availability of Islamic Education being offered at our mosques. We hope and pray that as we make Islamic learning more interesting for children and youths,they will in turn make our mosques as one of the places they can find solace and tranquillity and our children will grow up with values that uphold the true teachings of Islam and be a blessings to all.

    Thank you and wabillahitaufik wal hidayah, wassalam.

PDF icon Speech by CE Muis at the IEF Disbursement Ceremony (PDF,180KB)