Sekolah Ugama Radin Mas

BRIEF HISTORY

Radin Mas Religious School was established in the early 1950s as a religious class designed for parents and teenagers. The classes were led by a renowned teacher; Kiyai Zuhri Mutammim (1905-1985) at his mother-in-law’s place at 47 Radin Mas. Quran recitation and fardhu ain classes that were specially catered for children were held at the Radin Mas Surau situated infront of Kiyai Zuhri’s in laws house. The surau is built upon a plot of land which was donated by his father-in-law Haji Abdul Halim Bin Karto.

As the number of students at the surau increased, Haji Sujai Bin Haji Mansur realized the need to build a school to conduct the religious classes. He suggested that idea to the leaders of Radin Mas Kampung, namely, Haji Abu Bakar Haji Abdul Halim, Ahmad Jabri, an UMNO figure at that time, Said bin Ali and Mohd Salleh Kechut. Upon Kiyai Zuhri’s agreement, SURM was built under the leadership of Haji Sujai and the other leaders. In 1956, SURM was registered under no.11 and obtained its license under the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore. Haji Sujai bin Haji Mansur was then elected as the first principal in SURM.

At the beginning, SURM served as a half-day school. Its objective was to cater for secular school students who are either studying in the morning or afternoon session. At that point of time SURM operated for two and a half hours daily. The morning session started from 8-10.30am whereas the evening session from 2.30-5pm. Classes were held 5 days a week.

Initially SURM catered only for primary level ranging from primary 1 to 6. The students’ age group varied from 6-18 years old. The syllabus of the school and the books used were taken from religious schools in Johor Bahru. This system enabled a primary student to pursue their education at a ma’had in Johor or Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah in Singapore.

SURM also acts as a place to conduct social activities that strengthen ties between Radin Mas villagers and the community at large. Religious talks, sacrificial acts and all the other activities attracted both the muslims and non-muslim crowd.

In 1968, Radin Mas surau was proposed to become a mosque. With the larger space, more students were able to attend the classes in SURM. When the Radin Mas mosque gave way to the developments of the country, SURM was shifted to Al-Amin mosque, situated only 2km away from the old Radin Mas mosque.
Up till now, it is estimated that there is about 10,000 students who have participated the religious classes in SURM since it was first established.

ABOUT

Sekolah Ugama Radin Mas (SURM) has both a part-time madrasah and a full-time tahfiz centre run by BAPA. Its aim is to provide students in the mainstream schools with an access to religious education by conducting most of its classes during “off school” hours. SURM offers a comprehensive education system stretching from primary to secondary level.

The primary school education leads to Sijil Peperiksaan MUIS while the secondary school education is administered internally. Efforts are already in the pipeline to obtain recognition from Islamic colleges and institutions abroad in order to enable our students to pursue tertiary education in these institutions.

Since its inception in 1957, SURM has played a vital complementary role to the mainstream education. By filling the moral and religious aspect of the child’s development, the school has helped to produce all-rounded individuals and has a handful of Islamic intellectuals and scholars as its alumni.
A Full Time Tahfiz School in Singapore, (SURM) is a registered with Ministry of Education, Singapore since 1956.

(MOE Reg. No 118)
It offers part-time studies at primary level and full-time studies at secondary and pre-university levels.
SURM core philosophy of education is memorization and appreciation of the Quran. Thus, for both part-and full-time studies at SURM emphasises on the memorisation of the full Quran