SINGAPORE'S MADRASAHS STRUGGLE TO STAY RELEVANT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SINGAPORE 000785

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/15/2022
TAGS: PGOV SN KISL SOCI SCUL
SUBJECT: SINGAPORE'S MADRASAHS STRUGGLE TO STAY RELEVANT

REF: A. 06 SINGAPORE 1467

B. 05 SINGAPORE 1835


1. (SBU) Summary: Singapore's full-time private Islamic
schools, or madrasahs, are facing an existential crisis.
Within the Malay/Muslim community, many question the quality,
purpose, and continuing relevance of the full-time madrasahs
in Singapore's highly competitive, secular society. The
madrasahs are currently undergoing a GOS-driven curriculum
revision aimed at improving quality, but progress is slow,
and greater structural overhaul will be necessary for
full-time madrasahs to attract more than a small percentage
of Muslim students. End summary.

Singapore,s Madrasahs
--------------


2. (U) Singapore has six full-time madrasahs, which spend
approximately equal amounts of time teaching religious and
secular subjects. They serve roughly 5 percent of school-age
Malay/Muslims. (Note: Malay/Muslims represent 15 percent of
Singapore's total population. End Note.) The majority of
Malay/Muslim students attend Singapore's well-respected
public schools and go to weekend or evening religious classes
at 27 part-time madrasahs associated with local mosques.
Traditionally, the full-time madrasahs have served the more
conservative elements of the Malay/Muslim population.
Parents who want their children to focus on religious
studies, even at the expense of secular education, send them
to full-time madrasahs. When headscarves were banned from
public schools in 2002, some parents chose to enroll their
daughters in full-time madrasahs rather than send them to
public schools without headscarves.


3. (SBU) Two of the six full-time madrasahs are
well-respected for the quality of their religious and secular
education: Madrasah Al-Maarif (an all-girls school) and
Madrasah Aljuneid, which has a close connection with the
respected Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Al-Azhar bases a
representative in Aljuneid to recruit students for tertiary
education. The other four madrasahs focus more narrowly on
religious studies and are seen to offer a relatively poor
education in secular subjects, according to our contacts.
One of them, Madrasah Al-Irsyad, has a history of Saudi
connections and accepted a large donation from the visiting
Saudi Crown Prince in 2006 (Ref A). The school
administration recently hired several new teachers and it now
serves as the pilot school for a new curriculum (see para 4).
Another underperforming madrasah, Al-Arabiah, is known for
its Saudi-educated religious scholars and Wahhabi influence.
(Note: While Wahhabism is not officially banned in Singapore,
it is unofficially discouraged. End note.)

Improving Madrasah Quality
--------------


4. (SBU) Ever mindful of the need to maintain ethnic and
religious harmony, the Government of Singapore (GOS) has long
been concerned about the gap in educational and economic
performance between Singapore,s Malay/Muslims and its ethnic
Chinese and Indian communities. Following the discovery of a
home-grown, Malay/Muslim terrorist plot in late 2001, the GOS
became more focused on the need to close that gap to help
prevent radical influences from taking hold. In addition to
paying closer attention to how the madrasahs operate, the GOS
began to implement measures designed to raise standards.


5. (SBU) In 2003, in order to force madrasah reform, the GOS
decreed that madrasah students would have to pass the
government-mandated Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)
beginning in 2008. The Islamic Religious Council of
Singapore (MUIS),the Singapore government statutory board
for Malay/Muslim affairs that oversees Islamic education,
launched a curriculum revision program in 2001 to make it
more interactive and engaging and to better prepare madrasah
students for the PSLE. MUIS contracted with the
Chicago-based IQRA Foundation to design the new curriculum.

Skeptical Audience
--------------


6. (U) Despite good intentions, curriculum reform has bogged
down due to MUIS' shifting priorities and internal debates
over the scope of change, according to multiple contacts
working on the project. Moreover, the effort appears to face
an uphill battle convincing the Malay/Muslim community that
the new curriculum will significantly raise academic
performance. One journalist questioned the ability of
madrasahs to teach satisfactorily both the secular and

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Islamic subjects; he noted that the school day has already
been extended to eight hours in some madrasahs in an attempt
to cover all the material. Some of our contacts also thought
older teachers might resent what they view as government
interference and resist implementing the new curriculum.


7. (SBU) The chief executive officer of Madrasah Al-Irsyad
confidently predicted that his historically low-achieving
students would have no trouble passing the PSLE. However, a
local mosque manager noted that the test was so easy that if
the madrasah students could not pass it, the madrasahs did
"not deserve to stay open." A prominent Malay/Muslim
journalist agreed with this assessment, noting that the
madrasahs are required to achieve only the average score in
English, mathematics, and science of the six
lowest-performing public schools. According to press
reports, the government will require failing students to
transfer to higher-achieving madrasahs or public schools.

Purpose and Relevance
--------------


8. (SBU) Some in the Malay/Muslim community still question
whether the madrasahs should be held to the same standards as
the public schools. Underlying that question is an even more
fundamental debate over the purpose of Singapore's full-time
madrasahs. MUIS has declared that madrasahs should prepare
every student for a future "as a forward-thinking religious
leader or a professional in another field of his choice." On
the other hand, a mosque manager argued that madrasahs should
produce only religious scholars and teachers, and that
Singapore only needs two madrasahs to meet the religious
teaching needs of the small Muslim community; students
interested in secular careers should attend public schools,
he added.


9. (U) A number of young, educated Malay/Muslim community
volunteers told us they would not send their own children to
full-time madrasahs. One observed that doing so would limit
the child's future job opportunities. Like many other Muslim
parents, he will send his pre-school-age child to a public
school, where she will receive an excellent secular
education, and to part-time religious classes in the evening
or on weekends.

Comment
--------------


10. (C) Concerns about an ethnic performance gap and the
potential for radical influences ensure the GOS will continue
to pay close attention to the madrasahs and their reform.
Faced with a 2008 deadline for meeting minimum standards,
some of the full-time madrasahs appear to be making a serious
effort, but doubts remain whether others will be able to
improve secular courses sufficiently while maintaining their
heavy focus on religious education. Even if some of the
madrasahs fail next year,s exams, the GOS will find a way to
keep enough of them open to satisfy demand. While it hopes
to boost the academic achievements of Singapore's
Malay/Muslim community, the GOS may face a choice between
academic performance and driving Singapore,s relatively
moderate madrasahs underground or across the border. It will
likely opt for keeping the madrasahs open under close watch.
End comment.
HERBOLD