Former international trade and industry minister Darell Leiking added that while religious studies was certainly needed, it should be taught at home, religious schools or places of worship.

He called on schools to instead focus on subjects such as science, finance and coding skills, among others, saying that such skills were needed to “future proof” the country.

“The schools of today must prepare for the future and focus on science, finance, humanities, ethics alongside coding skills, programming and the Internet of Everything (IoE),” Leiking said in a Facebook post.

IoE – which is described as the intelligent connection of people, process, data and things – is an expansion of the Internet of Things or IoT.

“These future skills and their ancillary subjects are most needed for a nation to reset and become a future-proof nation.”

Leiking, who is Warisan deputy president, said this in response to reports that Putrajaya would be introducing a Fardu Ain Basic Class (Kafa) Ihsan module at all secondary schools in the near future.

Public schools, colleges and universities, he went on to say, should reset themselves to be an actual place of learning and acquisition of future skills.

On Thursday, religious affairs minister Idris Ahmad said the Kafa Ihsan module was being finalised by the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim).

The announcement drew criticism from the G25 group, which called on schools to instead focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

G25, a group of retired senior civil servants and former diplomats, was reported to have said that the government “should not try to turn our students into ustaz and ustazah as there are already many of them.”