KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 ― Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid today proposed the setting up of a joint committee between federal and state governments to review the religious tahfiz education system in Malaysia, following growing concerns about the safety standards there.

The education minister said that the committee, with the consent of the Malay rulers who are head of religion in respective states, should be able to come up with ways to streamline registration of students, to monitor such schools, and ensure safety there.

"Let us ensure that such an incident does not repeat. There is no need to point fingers at anyone right after an incident such as this,” he said.

Mahdzir’s suggestion comes after 23 people, 21 of them students, died in a pre-dawn fire at tahfiz school at Jalan Datuk Keramat yesterday, the latest in a series of fire incidents at such schools over the past few years, albeit the most deadly.

The tahfiz school which teaches Quran memorisation, called Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, was not registered with state religious authorities, and is one of over 600 such unregistered, privately-run tahfiz schools nationwide.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday said that a committee will investigate the actual cause for yesterday’s tragedy, and also urged tahfiz schools not to view the federal government’s efforts to monitor safety in such schools as a form of interference.