Johor’s Islamic international schools pulling in Singaporean students

 https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/johors-islamic-international-schools-drawing-singaporean-students




Johor’s Islamic international schools pulling in Singaporean students

Singaporean Adam Hairudin, 16, studies at Johor's Idrissi International School, which styles itself as an eco-international Islamic school.
Singaporean Adam Hairudin, 16, studies at Johor's Idrissi International School, which styles itself as an eco-international Islamic school.PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA

JOHOR BAHRU – A group of teenagers are sprawled on the smooth, grassy green synthetic carpet on the school grounds in Iskandar Puteri’s EduCity in Johor state, revising their lessons quietly after observing the Muslim noon prayers.

Among them is 16-year-old Singaporean Adam Hairudin, who moved here from his home in Singapore’s Bukit Batok town two years ago, going through his geography workbook with classmates of various nationalities. Two teachers oversee their young charges, who require occasional help with their assignments. English is spoken, with occasional snippets in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia and Bengali overheard among the students.

“I really like it here,” said Adam, a Year 10 student – equivalent to Secondary 4 in Singapore – who has made many friends at Idrissi International School.

“Studying here is easier, and I have more freedom to explore what I want to do,” he told The Straits Times.

The school’s Johor campus, which opened in September 2022, boasts air-conditioned classrooms, science and computer labs, a library, garden, sports facilities, and even a mini petting farm. It takes in pre-school, primary and secondary students, with boarding facilities for the last group.

Idrissi is one of two international schools in the southern Malaysian state that are drawing Singaporean students by offering an academic programme taught mainly in English with Islamic elements.

The other is Mount Safa International Islamic School, which has been operating for more than a decade in a suburb in state capital Johor Bahru.

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A third such school is in the works. Brainy Bunch, an Islamic Montessori pre-school franchise with branches in Malaysia and Singapore, expects to open a branch in Iskandar Puteri’s education hub by 2027, said its group chief executive, Mr Mohd Fadzil Hashim.

These schools hope to meet a growing demand for education with Islamic elements for Singaporeans unable to enrol their children in the Republic’s full-time Islamic religious schools, or madrasahs.

Singapore’s madrasahs take in 400 Primary 1 students a year, said the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis). These students will then progress up the levels to pre-university.

The Malaysian schools also provide an option for Singapore students seeking an academic curriculum in line with the Cambridge international curriculum, alongside religious elements. Besides core subjects such as English, mathematics and science, these schools offer Islamic history, the Arabic language and Quran reading as well.

The school fees for foreign students range from RM14,000 (S$4,240) to RM30,000 a year, depending on the level of education.

Adam, who moved to Johor from a Singapore government school when he was in Secondary 2, is among the 30 Singaporean students studying at Idrissi.

Under the Compulsory Education Act, all Singapore citizens born after Jan 1, 1996, and living in Singapore must attend a national primary school unless an exemption is granted. Parents told ST that they have had to apply for this prior to enrolling their offspring in the Malaysian schools.

They also had to obtain a dependant pass from Malaysia’s Immigration Department in order to live with their children in the country, while their kids applied for a student pass.

Muis, which oversees the six madrasahs in the Republic, told ST that it generally encourages Islamic education in full-time madrasahs in Singapore, but recognises that some families may choose alternative options.

On top of meeting the annual intake quota, students eyeing a Primary 1 slot in Singapore’s madrasahs must sit an entrance exam under the Joint Madrasah Admission Exercise.

Idrissi’s principal, Mr Mustafa Shemmari, noted a rising trend of Singaporeans settling in Johor to send their kids to school in the state in recent years.

The school in Johor, which has a maximum capacity of 600 students, currently has about 150 from 16 nations. Most of them are Malaysian, followed by 20 per cent from Singapore, with the rest from countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Britain and Australia.

In January, Idrissi accepted 19 new Singaporean students for the Johor campus.

Idrissi International School currently has about 150 students representing 16 nations.PHOTO: IDRISSI SCHOOL

Over at Mount Safa, about 17 per cent of the current crop of 204 all-Muslim students are Singaporean.

Mount Safa was co-founded in 2012 by Singaporean Asmadi Ahmad, an NTU graduate and Raffles Institution alumnus.

On top of academic and religious studies, the school emphasises sports such as swimming, archery, horse riding and karate, and organises leadership camps plus field trips to organic farms. Mount Safa currently has no boarding facilities.

Mr Md Noor Haron, director of Mount Safa’s parent company, Safa International Schools Berhad, and the school’s other co-founder, said the school seeks to attract Singapore students, particularly those unable to secure places in the Republic’s madrasahs.

“We feel it is our duty and responsibility as fellow Muslims to offer this option to Singaporean Muslim families,” he said, adding that there are plans to open another school in Iskandar Puteri but did not elaborate further.

A conference involving the school board, staff and parents as part of preparations for the 2025 academic year at Mount Safa International Islamic School.ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA

Up until October, Mr Asmadi was the principal of Mount Safa, but the school said it has been under new management since then.

Mr Noor said that ongoing developments such as the Rapid Transit System Link project – a rail service linking Singapore and Johor Bahru – and the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone initiative would likely see the increased presence of Singaporeans in the southern state.

The Singaporean parents who enrolled their children in these schools in Johor say they are drawn by the dual academic and religious focus. That, and the teaching done in English, means a smooth transition from the English-medium Singapore schools.

Government schools in Malaysia teach in Malay, the national language, with only a handful allowed to conduct lessons in English for maths and science.

Mr Mohammad Eznillah Razali, a 45-year-old business manager who chose Mount Safa for his two sons, said: “I want my boys to have a strong grasp of religious knowledge to guide them on how they lead their lives.”

Mr Mohammad Eznillah Razali (right) and his son Ahmad Naqib, 15, a Secondary 3 student at Mount Safa International Islamic School.ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA

Madam Khatijah Mohd Noor, 44, who has three sons studying at Idrissi, including Adam who is the oldest, values the emphasis on personal development and a more relaxed studying environment there compared with the syllabus-driven pace in Singapore.

She believes that while academic qualifications are necessary, it is important too for her sons to develop social skills and confidence among students of various nationalities.

“I think (people) skills are more important than paper qualifications today... It is a culture of lifelong learning over paper qualifications,” she said.

Mr Riduan Ishak, executive director of event firm Tarkiz, whose five-year-old daughter attends Mount Safa pre-school, shares the same opinion and hopes early Islamic education will instil positive moral values in his child.

All the parents whom ST spoke to, who hold dependant visas and moved to Johor to be near their children’s schools, say one of the main challenges they face living in the southern state is the lack of reliable public transport.

“We need to drive everywhere,” said Madam Khatijah, who is busy ferrying her children to and from school and extracurricular activities all day during term time.

Science and humanities textbooks used at Mount Safa International Islamic School.ST PHOTO: HARITH MUSTAFFA

Dr Norshahril Saat, a senior fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, meanwhile, raised concerns about the nature of the religious studies taught in these schools.

“The curriculum would be beyond the jurisdiction of the Singapore authorities, and a more in-depth study is required on this.”

The schools say that their academic curriculum is green-lit by Malaysia’s Ministry of Education, with their religious studies approved under the country’s Islamic Development Department – or Jakim – and state-level Religious Affairs Department.

Mr Mustafa said that unlike the Setia Alam branch, which is fully Muslim, Idrissi’s Johor campus has a few non-Muslim students.

“We’re not strictly an Islamic school, but an international school with Islamic values infused in it,” he added.

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