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.
