News South Asia

Call for careers in religious sector to be recognised as professional

KUALA LUMPUR — The move to recognise careers in religious sector as professional and critical can lure more young people to venture into the industry, according to the representative from Egypt Umno Club, Ahmad Syahir Shafie.

Therefore, he called on the government to give the recognition in a bid to uphold Islam and get more Islamic scholars closer to Umno.

At the same time, he said it would also give assurance to students of Islamic Studies that there would be a good career path for them upon graduation.

“Religious fields, such as fikh, tahfiz and hadis, should be defined as critical and professional fields...then only religious scholars will be with Umno,” he said when debating the motion on religion and education at the 2013 Umno General Assembly here today.

The Al-Azhar University student also called on the government to reconsider the decision to stop giving Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) scholarship to overseas-bound university students.

“Mara is established for the Malays, to help the Malays. If they don’t, who will?” he said to the cheers of the delegates.

Meanwhile, Umno Youth made five recommendations, including to have the national school system to be empowered so that the new generation produced would not only excel in education, but also have strong personality.

Papar Umno Youth Armizan Ali said the recommendations should be among the main focus in the national education system, even though they were not underlined in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

“To empower the national school does not mean that we are sidelining, let alone stopping the development of other schools. It just shows our determination and aspiration to strengthen national unity and integration through education,” he said while debating the same motion.

Armizan also expressed hope that attractive elements could be introduced at national schools in the future so that parents, regardless of race and background, would make national school as the preferred school for their children.

Describing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s call to establish Islamic Community College as in line with Islamic teachings, Armizan also proposed for tahfiz education be inserted in the mainstream education.