PUPILS in Primary 5 and 6 in Islamic schools, or madrasahs, will each receive a $300 education grant to help them prepare for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE).

They can use the money from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) to pay for enrichment classes and remedial lessons in such PSLE subjects as English, Science and Mathematics.

The grants come from the $700,000 that Muis has set aside for all six madrasahs here, as the PSLE becomes compulsory for their pupils for the first time this year.

The amount will also be used to pay for training courses for madrasah teachers and a mentoring scheme that offers them guidance from experienced teachers in national schools.

The madrasahs are considered private schools, and their students are not eligible for Edusave accounts held by their counterparts in national schools.

Yesterday, Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Yaacob Ibrahim handed cheques to each of the six madrasahs.

Speaking to reporters after the event, he said:'We cannot ignore the fact that secular schools, for example, will spend a lot of money bringing in consultants from outside, and having enrichment programmes for the kids to prepare for the PSLE.'

Students admitted to madrasahs, after compulsory education took effect in 2003, have to sit for the PSLE.

The madrasahs have to ensure that the average score of their PSLE pupils matches those of Malay pupils in national schools.

If not, they risk losing pupils to a mainstream school or another madrasah that meets the mark.

Much of the funding for madrasahs has come from Muis which, since 2003, has spent $2.3 million in training their staff and developing enrichment programmes for their pupils.

Madam Sri Sukastri Mohd Hanapi, who teaches mathematics and information technology at the Al-Maarif Madrasah, hopes to have more enrichment classes for her PSLE-bound pupils.

'This way, even though I have less curriculum time to teach them the PSLE subjects, they will not be at a disadvantage when compared with students from national schools,' she said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 18, 2008.