“They don’t come to the education ministry, they go straight to the religious department and get the necessary approval to operate,” he told reporters outside the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz school, located in Jalan Keramat Ujung, here today.
He said that these religious schools even have their own syllabus and teaching.
Kamalanathan said if they were to register with the education ministry, the ministry will be able to get permission for the tahfiz schools and have other agencies to come in and guide them on the procedures for setting up the school, among other things.
He said that local authorities should have done the inspections, however, there seems to be some irregularities.
“We are waiting for the final report to find out what actually happened, only then can we see what action needs to be taken,” he said.
At least 21 students and two wardens were killed in the early morning fire at the tahfiz school in Datuk Keramat this morning.
Kuala Lumpur fire and rescue department chief Khirudin Drahman was quoted by AFP as saying that the victims could have died due to smoke inhalation, when they got trapped in the fire.
“I think it is one of the country’s worst fire disasters in the past 20 years. We are now investigating the cause of the fire,” he said.
Tahfiz are religious schools where children study the Quran in Malaysia, where over 60% of the population of about 30 million are Muslim.