8 Tips to prepare your child for Full-time Madrasah entry test in
Singapore.
Alhamdulillah. The fact that you are reading this goes to show that you may have the (slightest) intention (niyyah) and thoughts to place your pre-school child in a full-time madrasah in Singapore. May I applaud and congratulate you for that.
Acceptance into full-time madrasah may not be as breezy because
firstly, there are limited places in each of the four madrasahs (Al Ma'arif, Alsagoff, Irsyad
Zuhri & Wak
Tanjong). Secondly there is a growing realization of the importance of
having a balanced secular & ukhrawi education under one roof – making
full-time madrasahs as a popular choice for primary school education, thus
strong competition to fight for a place each year. Thirdly, there will be an
entry test that your child has to go through. Excelling in the test is crucial for eligibility. There will be 4 test papers namely English, Maths, Malay &
Arabic followed by oral tests in English, Malay & Iqra' / Du’a /Surah
recitation.
So, here are some tips to get your six-year-old child ready for that.
1. Able to read and express in English
Obviously, this is very important. Your
child needs to be able to read the instructions given in the test papers before
answering the questions. Introduce books to them since baby – in fact even when
they are still in the womb. Make reading an everyday activity. Make reading a
fun and enjoyable bonding time with your child. Borrow simple picture books
from the library to kick start the interest as early as possible. There is no
need to further emphasize how critical reading is.
2. Able to read and express in Malay
See above. For parents who only converse
in English, do note that your child may need extra coaching for the Malay
paper. Malay language is as equal importance as English. So do be sure that
your child is bilingual at this stage. Perhaps, get one parent to speak in one language each.
3. Able to write legibly.
Practice writing every other day. Children
have the tendency to mix up b's & d's, p's & q's orientation so
exposing them to writing regularly would not only make their handwriting better and
neater but helping them to remember the order and shape of these letters.
Writing may begin as early as three years old (otherwise they might poke the
sharp pencil into their eyes so do beware!). You can start by asking them to
write their own names, family members’ names, simple words and so on. For
madrasah entry test, they must write clearly and legibly.
4. Recognize al-abjadīyah al-ʻarabīyah (i.e arabic letters) and read the muqqadam
As soon as you introduce your child to
ABC, you need to introduce ا ب ت to him/her at the same time. Qur’an will be part and parcel of
madrasah students’ life (well it should be in all Muslims lives too isn’t it?!).
Hence learning the holy book in its original language is a predominant factor. Get
them to sing ا ب ت tune to ABC tune. For
the entry test, your child must be able to read the Qiraati book 2 onwards or
Iqra’ 3 onwards. By five years old, Iqra’ reading should also be done on a
daily basis, preferably after one of the fardhu solat. Make this as a family
Qur’an reading time. It helps if you send them to “ngaji” sessions with an
outsider because most of the time children refuse to learn the qur’an with
their parents or other immediate family members.
4. Able to read simple arabic words
If you are especially a
secular educated parents (like me) Arabic may be a shortfall. To do this, I
would suggest getting your child to lots of exposure to Arabic materials such
as flashcards, wooden blocks, reading books, assessment books and if you can
afford, engage an Arabic tutor if need be (although I find that it is not
really necessary if you are just preparing for the entry test). Also make use
of technology by installing Arabic learning apps in your devices – yes, turn
the tablet into an Arabic learning one but limit tablet usage though.
For the entry test, your child must know
a) how to separate
letters forming a word.
For example: مكتب = ب +ت +ك +م
b)
read and write numbers in Arabic
c) simple and basic
Arabic vocabulary
5. Able to do simple Math
This I would not worry much if your child attends preschool in childcare centres or PCF kindergartens because they are likely to have done straightforward Math
exercises. Your child must be able to count (at least till 10), recognize simple
(number) patterns, ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd
etc), learnt concepts of “more/less”, be able to perform addition and
subtraction (within 1-10). Abundance of assessment books practices can get them
on track easily for this one. Do encourage them to think in numbers and relate
to concepts such as long, short, heavy, light and so forth.
6. Able to recite daily du’as
As per the
sunnah, du’a recitation should be inculcated in our everyday activities. As
soon as your child can speak, teach him/her the appropriate du’a and their
meanings as well. Nevermind if it is a lengthy one or too mouthful for them.
You just have to keep reading it aloud and encourage them to follow you through
EVERY SINGLE time. Within months you’d be surprise that he/she has memorised
that once difficult du’a. For the entry test, popular asked du’as would be du’a
when riding a vehicle, du’a before entering the toilet, du’a before you sleep,
etc.
7. Memorise and recite short surahs
I read Fatihah
and the three Quls to my daughter in order to put her to bed once her
sleeping routine was established. This continued till she was about three and started
to speak. So one fine night, I was about to put her to bed when she surprised
me by reciting together the Fatihah and three Quls out loud. This was totally
unbelievable as I had not done a verse by verse recitation for her to memorise
but obviously she had it “programmed” in her memory since it was happening
every night. So for Fatihah and the three Quls, get it into their system via
this effective method.
Children are
the best memorizer because of their nature to imitate and copy. So try and get them
to memorize the Juz Amma where possible. My suggestion is download
them in MP3 format to your handheld devices and get them to listen whilst you
are on the road.
8. Perform the Prayer of Need (Sala al Hajah) and Tahajjud
Needless to
say, last but not least this is one powerful prayer you can do in order to gain
entry to full-time madrasah for your child. Do this in istiqomah (consistently)
and never give up in seeking Allah’s guidance and the righteous way to attain His
blessings. Pray during those nights and make du’a for your child because only
Allah knows what is best for us whatever the outcome will be. As a parent, do be
sure that you have done your part and best effort in raising your children to
be the best Muslimin/Muslimah, insha Allah.
For the benefit of all parents, here is the link to the sample entry test papers for Madrasah Irsyad Zuhri (2015). All the best!
Bi Taufik Wa Najjah
