Ground-breaking MOU between WCED and Muslim Judicial Council
20 February 2020
Muslim learners attending Haafith schools will be able to reintegrate easier into secular schools following a ground-breaking memorandum of understanding entered into between the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC).
Learners spend three to four years at Haafith schools in order to memorise the Quran.
The WCED was concerned that many learners of compulsory school-going age were exiting registered independent and public schools in order to attend Haafith schools and when they came back into the public school system, the WCED could not account for the missing years in the academic life of these learners.
As part of the MOU, parents can apply for exemption from compulsory education and the learners can then attend support classes offered by the MJC for English, Mathematics and Natural Sciences while attending Haafith schools. The MJC will also put structures in place to ensure that all Haafith schools in the Western Cape comply with specific regulatory prescripts, which include regulations pertaining to buildings, municipal by-laws and health conditions.
All learners exiting Haafith schools will be subjected to the WCED’s online diagnostic testing to assess which grade the learner must be placed