Facing conflicts

On Sunday I attended a PTA meeting at my children’ school. And as usual meeting would not complete without conflict of opinion. I promised myself to be calm and collected as I can smell the conflict brewing before the meeting. I don’t need such conflict to ruin the weekend since it has been quite a wonderful one so far. I am too old for this and pressures will just make you old faster than usual. But some things can be let go while some others we have to drag the feet through it.; and this is one of them. The issue was to improve the Quranic reading at the school. Of the late I noticed that some students have been lagging behind in their Quranic reading; while the principal was boasting about the high level of Hafazan among the students. For me hafazan would be meaning less if the students could not read what they have memorized. The school would give excuses of lack of teachers to handle the students on one to one basis. I said implementation is secondary as the objective would take a priority. Is the objective to improve reading the Quran or to produce hafiz or hafizah? They wanted both. Ok that’s fine but you cannot compromise one at the expense of the other. Since resource is the problem then this is inevitable.

The problem is reading the Quran will start with Iqra’ series as we all are familiar with (Iqra’1 -6). In order to get through these series you would need a learning mechanism with one-to-one basis and a consistent daily routine. It is tedious and utterly boring. The child would make all sort of excuses to skip this learning because of its difficulty. BUT it is necessary , there is no short cut to this. If the school could not do it than you have to find private tuition for it. One way or the other this learning process has to go on. Actually it should be done with during tadika years but if not let’s take the first two years of primary school; and they should complete the Iqra by then.By Yr 3 the kid can start reading the Quran and Khatam by Yr 6. In secondary school years they can opt for Hafazan and complete the whole Quran by PMR if doing full time or by SPM if on part-time basis. So that’s how I see it but some people have other ideas. Since I can’t see what the ideas will bring forth ; that has created unnecessary conflict. I guess I have to go and find out what they have been thinking before everything falls apart.

Hafazan takes a different path to the Quranic reading. Mainly the focus is on sound; the long and the short of it. The technique for hafazan has been around for a long time. I remember when I was learning the Quran, the tok guru would ask us to “perdeghah” (practice) all the time. If we could not make the sound properly or forgot how to make out the sound then she the tok guru would go into a “pontianak” look and told us off to go back and practice some more. And that’s how I learned or “unlearned” the Quran. I never finished with that tok guru. Too garang. She was my auntie. May her soul rest in peace.

I will continue to find a solution to resolve this issue; one way or the other.