KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 ― The Fire and Rescue Department has expressed its worry over the fire risk of unregistered and private Islamic tahfiz schools in the country, due to their lack of fire safety measures.
The Star reported its director-general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim saying the department is especially monitoring such schools in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu due to the huge number of fire incidents occurring there.
“My department has no resources to check on every school, and we depend on local governments for help in reaching out to these establishments,” he reportedly said.
He explained that many of such schools are either built on the fringes of towns, or not under the jurisdiction of local governments or municipalities.
“For the past three years, we have embarked on programmes to educate imam, congregations and local committee leaders nationwide on this matter, with little success.
“But we are not giving up and are looking for a more effective way to get in touch with them, possibly by having more regular programmes,” he was quoted saying.
The paper said between 2015 and this year there has already been 211 fire cases involving tahfiz schools nationwide, where students learn Quran memorisation.
It reported that while there are 519 tahfiz schools registered as of April, there are many more that remain unregistered.
