With the Asatizah Recognition Scheme (ARS) to be made compulsory on Sunday (Jan 1), religious teachers, or asatizah, who are not registered under the scheme would have a three-month grace period to do so, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) said on Thursday (Dec 29).
Announcing details to ease religious teachers and organisations into the scheme, Muis said that a grace period of up to three years would also be granted to those who do not meet the academic qualification requirement now.
In the interim, these teachers could be granted provisional recognition under the scheme that allows them to teach basic subjects such as Quranic literacy and basic Islamic rituals.
Islamic education centres and providers will have to register with Muis and employ only asatizah recognised under the scheme. Those that do not meet the requirements will be given a one-year grace period to make the necessary adjustments, including hiring new asatizah under the scheme, or acquire provisional ARS licences for asatizah not registered with it, or tweaking their curriculum. Islamic education centres and providers refer to those who provide religious instruction to non-family members regularly on their own premises or otherwise. These include running classes at mosques, private Islamic education centres, and residences.
The move towards mandatory ARS — first announced on the sidelines of this year’s National Day Rally by Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim — comes at a time when there is “growing religious consciousness” among the Muslim community here, Muis said.
Mr Abdul Razak Hassan Maricar, chief executive officer of Muis, said that the scheme has particular importance in today’s context. “There is a need to present contextualised teaching and guard against extreme and exclusive teachings, and of course, problematic teachers.”
“It gives some assurance to the community that they will get reliable and appropriate religious guidance, only from recognised asatizah,” he added.
The ARS is voluntary for now, with 2,500 asatizah — or the majority of all Islamic teachers in the Islamic education sector.
The scheme, which started in 2005, is administered by Muis and the Singapore Islamic Scholars and Religious Teachers Association (Pergas). It recognises teachers and scholars who meet the minimum standards of qualification to preach and teach Islamic religious knowledge.
Under these standards — split into two tiers, one for asatizah and another for Quranic teachers — asatizah will need to undergo at least 30 credit hours of continuous professional education (CPE) modules in three years. These include skills-based courses such as counselling, as well as content-based modules such as sociology of religion. Quranic teachers will need to undergo at least 10 credit hours of CPE over the same period of time.
The ARS also contains a code of ethics, for registered asatizah to follow. These include what not to teach — advocating political ideas that may encourage extremism, for example — as well as a code of conduct.
Any asatizah and/or Islamic education centres and providers flouting the rules may have their recognition status suspended or cancelled by Muis. Nevertheless, the council stressed that remedial measures, including counselling, will be the first resort.
On the matter of enforcing the scheme, particularly on home-based teachers, Mr Abdul Razak said that “residents and neighbours are encouraged to approach their mosques to find out which are the asatizah approved to teach”.
He added: “We do think that those who are teaching at home are (mostly) under the scheme.”
ARS will not apply to foreign religious speakers as they are regulated under the Manpower Ministry’s Miscellaneous Work Pass scheme. Singapore sponsors of these speakers have to ensure that the speakers possess formal religious training before applying for the work pass.
Muis said: “We have to ensure that the standards we apply to local teachers also have to apply to foreign teachers, just by a different mechanism.”
At the National Day Rally this year, Dr Yaacob told reporters that some 20 per cent of asatizah in Singapore are not under the ARS. Since that announcement, Muis has said that “more than 100” asatizah not under the scheme have registered with it.
Source: www.todayonline.com
