Commenting on the frequency of fire incidents at such religious schools, Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah told FMT he believed many of them did not get clearance on the safety of their premises.

The most recent fires happened last week at two branches of Maahad Tahfiz Assyatirie. On Jan 24, 240 students escaped a fire at the hostel of the school’s Sungai Dedap branch in Yan, Kedah. The incident came less than two days after a fire at the Kampung Dulang Besar branch in the same district.

More than 1,000 fires occurred in registered and unregistered religious schools from August 2015 to August 2017. Of these, 211 were burnt to the ground, according to the fire department.

Raja Kamarul, who was deputy minister for housing and local government from 2018 to 2020, said the authorities responsible for giving approvals must not compromise on safety and the quality of the materials used to build the premises.

“Some of the religious school owners have limited budget,” he said. “They cut costs by using low-quality construction materials.”

He said the authorities must not allow any interference from politicians or VIPs in the process of granting approvals.

He also said some schools had made structural changes to the buildings and had not secured clearance from the fire department.

“The authorities must do checks at these schools regularly to prevent accidents from happening.”

Former Islamic affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa claimed that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government took the matter of school safety seriously and had an “integrated approach” in trying to solve the problem of fires at tahfiz schools.

“During the PH administration, the government established a committee that had representatives from local councils, the education ministry, the home affairs ministry and the women, family and community development ministry to look into the issue,” he said.

“PH allocated RM100 million for this effort.”