It’s been an eventful year for pondok and religious schools in Kelantan. Athough we are only six months into the year, there have been four incidents involving them.
Three of them involved fires, which is quite common among pondok and madrasah in the state.
The first incident at the end of February hit Madrasah Al-Badriah, or known to locals as Pondok Jal Besar in Tumpat.
Forty-four huts providing accommodations for students were razed.
This was followed by another fire at Pondok Sri Permai in Seligi, Pasir Puteh in April, which saw seven of 30 huts burnt.
The small number was because a student raised the alarm early.
At the end of April, another incident hit Maahad Tahfiz Al-Quran Al-Islamiah in Banggol Chicha, Pasir Mas, which saw more than 30 students losing their accommodations after their hostel caught fire.
It is lucky that in all the incidents, no life were lost as the fire at the two pondok broke out at night while the students were at the mosques, while in the pre-dawn fire at the tahfiz, the students fled in time.
The Fire and Rescue Department had said repeatedly that the frequent fires at pondok and madrasah in the state were because the administrators of the schools failed to give priority to safety.
This included haphazard construction of huts, low quality of building materials and poor electrical wiring in buildings.
However, the mudir, or principal, of one of the pondok involved confided in the writer recently that it was not true that they gave low priority to safety at their schools.
He said the real problem faced by most of the schools was that they lacked funds as they depended on handouts from the public.
One school that did not depend on the public, but was was fully sponsored by the private sector, was Maahad Tahfiz Al-Quran Al-Hashimi in Kampung Tualang in Kuala Krai.
Visitors to the school complex will be awed by the facilities provided by its developer, Kuala Lumpur-based CT-One Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, a company involved in various business, including defence equipment.
The school is well-designed with good accommodation facilities for teachers and students.
It also has a beautiful mosque and even a futsal arena.
Compared with other pondok and religious schools in Kelantan, the school is the best in terms of facilities.
The founder of the company and school, former army major Datuk Adnan Hashim, said the complex was built over 5ha and the company have had spent RM7 million to RM8 million on it.
It has about 60 students, including Thai students,land who study at the school at no charge.
Maahad Tahfiz Al-Hashimi was in the limelight earlier this month, but for a different reason.
A van driven by one of the teachers carrying 12 students lost control while overtaking another vehicle at Km55 of Jalan Kuala Krai-Kota Baru near Kampung Telekung and ploughed into a house.
The incident on June 2, killed seven students, most of them in their teens, including one Thai national.
Five of them died at the scene while another two died at Kuala Krai hospital.
The teachers were on the way to a Quran recital programme organised by the state government in Kota Baru.
According to police, the teacher who was driving did not have a valid driving licence and probably had taken over from the other teacher, who was the original driver.
Initial investigations showed that the driver was speeding when the accident happened and this was confirmed by Kelantan deputy police chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Din Ahmad.
The writer is NST’s Kelantan bureau chief.