KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 — Every cloud has a silver lining, so goes a popular proverb. In the case of Pusat Kecemerlangan Hatimurni, which runs three private Islamic schools in the Klang Valley, the movement control order (MCO) provided the stimulus to kick-start its digital teaching platform.

Hatimurni had been planning to launch its online teaching mode for a long time but had to postpone it due to several factors.

However, it went into overdrive following the enforcement of MCO on March 18 and rolled out its digital “infrastructure” a day later.

Hatimurni’s schools — which conduct al-Quran and Fardu Ain classes for children aged between seven and 13 – are located in Wangsa Maju and Setiawangsa here and Bandar Bukit Mahkota in Bangi, Selangor. The three schools have a total of 810 students and 45 teachers.

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Said Hatimurni chief executive officer Siti Khadijah Mohni: “The stay-at-home order gave us the opportunity to introduce our digital classes as we want our students to keep pace with the school syllabus and we have been getting positive feedback from parents.”

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She told Bernama their online teaching effort will continue even after the MCO is lifted on April 28 and will be improved in terms of delivery as currently, it is based on a one-way communication structure.

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“We want to have a two-way communication structure as this is more beneficial for the students and teachers,” she added.

The school management starts the day by informing parents via WhatsApp the topic that will be taught, as well as what time the day’s teaching videos will be uploaded on Facebook.

Beginning April 1, the management incorporated the use of Zoom, a video conferencing application, to enable the teachers to interact with their students.

Cost-effective

Hatimurni’s digital initiative, however, is not exactly problem-free due to weak Internet connections in some areas and also the fact that not all its students have access to Internet service.

Siti Khadijah also pointed out that one-way communication makes it difficult for the teachers to find out if their students understood the topic that is being taught.

“The students can’t ask for any clarification in case they don’t understand something,” she said, adding that at times the teacher would also run into technical problems whilst conducting an online lesson and would have to postpone or cancel the session.

Despite the apparent weaknesses of the digital teaching platform, Siti Khadijah acknowledged its cost-effectiveness.

“We can save costs as not many teachers are needed. One or two teachers can create video recordings on various topics but they have to be creative in order to attract the students’ attention and motivate them to follow each and every online teaching session,” she added. — Bernama