What is JMS (Joint Madrasah System)?

MUIS developed the Joint Madrasah System (JMS) with the collaboration of three of the six madrasah (Al-Irsyad, Aljunied and Al-Arabiah). This system was implemented in January 2009.

Under this system, Al-Irsyad focuses on providing primary level education while Aljunied and Al-Arabiah focus on providing secondary level education. For the secondary levels, Aljunied will specialise in religious education and seeks to produce religious teachers and scholars for the community, while Al-Arabiah will specialise in providing academic education in a religious environment.

This consolidation of the madrasah allows them to focus on their strengths and specialise their offerings. It also ensures a critical mass of students at each level for the madrasah to function more efficiently and effectively. JMS offers diversification as it will open a wide door of opportunities for madrasah students to pursue Islamic higher learning in many more universities. JMS seeks to offer more options to cater to the differentiated ability of students.

With this move, the JMS curriculum provides a comprehensive and balanced exposure to both Islamic and modern sciences. With the consolidation in place, it was only appropriate for Muis to study the curriculum offered individually at the 3 schools and to offer an alternative, integrated curriculum that would align them together coherently and effectively. The instructional strategies at the Madrasahs are moving towards pedagogies that include problem-based learning and inquiry-based learning in a collaborative classroom culture.

The changes bring a different perspective on the roles of the teacher. Teachers will now have several roles in the classroom: direct teaching, facilitators and coaches. Hence, following the curriculum review and for the successful implementation of the curriculum, it is imperative for all teachers to be trained in order for them to carry the new curriculum and actively be partners to their students and share the learning experience as much as ‘teaching’ it.