Self-Assessment of Private Tahfiz Schools’ Governance and Infrastructures

Abstract

Self- funded Private Tahfiz schools in Malaysia have been given attention as an alternative education stream for children to concentrate on memorizing Al Quran. A Tahfiz student who has successfully memorized the whole Al-Quran is called a Huffaz. Besides the ability in memorizing Al Quran, a Huffaz has the potential to excel in professional fields and expected to contribute to the enhancement of human capital. In meeting its noble objective and high stakeholder’s expectation, the Private Tahfiz School governance is accountable to provide sufficient school infrastructures in support for conducive learning experience to its students. This study attempts to assess and to compare the governance structure and the infrastructure of Private Tahfiz schools in Selangor and Johor. Using a quantitative research method, a self-assessment questionnaire survey was distributed to Private Tahfiz education providers. Descriptive analysis and t test were applied in analysing the data. The assessment marks were translated into star ratings (90%-100%: 4 stars-Excellent, 70%-89%: 3 stars-Good, 50%-69%%: 2 stars- Satisfactory, and 49% and below:1 star- Not Satisfactory). It was found that on average, Private Tahfiz schools in Johor and Selangor had 3 stars infrastructure. The results also showed that there were differences in school governance and the availability of infrastructures in Private Tahfiz schools in both states. Infrastructures for teachers’ welfare, reading room to enhance reading habit among Private Tahfiz School community and information technology infrastructure were among the low rating infrastructures. These findings will help interested stakeholders strategizing their contributions for the improvement and development of infrastructures in Private Tahfiz schools towards providing an inclusive education to the students. Future research may apply auditing technique to assess the Private Tahfiz School’s infrastructure and its relationship to students’ performance in order to enrich the literature on Private Tahfiz School and infrastructure.