OurMadrasah.SG - A Community Public Education and Fundraising Portal to Support Full-Time Madrasahs
MEDIA RELEASE
4 December 2020
1. The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) is pleased to announce the launch of a new public education and centralised fundraising portal - OurMadrasah.SG - in support of and in collaboration with the six Full-time Madrasahs in Singapore.
Background
2. Our 6 Full-time Madrasahs1 play a key role in the educational development of religious scholars and educators for the Singapore Muslim community. Each of our madrasahs has a unique identity and has existed even before Singapore’s independence.
3. With the evolving educational landscape, the madrasahs have continuously adapted their curriculum and pedagogy to the changing circumstances. This has enabled the madrasahs to sustain their work in nurturing religious graduates who are equipped in providing religious guidance and instilling values in the community relevant to the context of Singapore’s modern and multi-cultural society.
4. As private schools, madrasahs rely heavily on the support of the community. Madrasahs 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 funding2. These funds are used primarily to support madrasahs’ expenditure on manpower and teachers’ professional development. They also rely on the community’s contribution to support their expenditure on school programmes as well as operations. (please refer to Annex A)
5. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, madrasahs have had to suspend or cancel several external fundraising events. This has resulted in a shortfall in revenue from typical fundraising sources and donation drives, such as collection during Friday congregational prayers. In addition, implementation of safe management measures also made it harder for donors to come physically to the madrasahs to donate.
Centralised Public Education and Fundraising Portal
6. To help the madrasahs tide through these challenging times, Muis has worked with the madrasahs to develop OurMadrasah.SG, a community public education and fundraising portal to expand the outreach and share more with the public on our madrasahs through videos, articles and writeups. The platform aims to showcase some of these achievements for the community to be kept abreast on the progress of madrasahs’ development.
7. The platform will also serve to provide a seamless payment gateway which will be easier for the community to make online donations. Muis urges the community to continue supporting our madrasahs during this challenging period.
8. Members of the community can make their contributions online at https://ourmadrasah.sg via credit or debit card, eNETS, PayNow and GIRO. Recurring payments can also be made through credit/debit card or GIRO to help support the madrasahs in the long term. (please refer to Annex B)
MAJLIS UGAMA ISLAM SINGAPURA
1 The 6 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.
2 This specifically covers Edusave and teacher development for secular subjects (See Prime Minister’s speeches at 2013 and 2015 National Day Rally respectively).
