SHARING THE BEAUTY OF ISLAM

Islamic Special Religious Education (ISRE)

In 1983, ICNSW was granted approval to provide Special Religious Education by the Department of Education. Initially, its small team of dedicated volunteers ran classes which served around 200 students. 

Special Religious Education encompasses religious knowledge, scripture studies as well as the ethics and practices of the prophet Muhammad, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him.

Currently we have there are 20 regional volunteer supervisors and 540 volunteer teachers. Together, they deliver over 1,300 sessions for over 28,000 students in 350 schools every week.

Over 500,000 students have benefited from our program over the years and many will testify to the value ISRE had given them when growing up.

Our ISRE program is 100% donation driven and we do not receive any funding from NSW Department of Education or the Commonwealth Department of Education, Skills and Employment.

ABOUT ISRE

Our History

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “God, His angels and all those in Heavens and on Earth, even ants in their hills and fish in the water, call down blessings on those who instruct others in beneficial knowledge.” At-Tirmidhi, Hadith 422

In the spirit of the Islamic tradition of seeking knowledge, ISRE (Islamic Special Religious Education) was established over 21 years ago as a means to encourage the development of an Islamic identity and educational grounding in Muslim youth in New South Wales.

Since its inception, ISRE has worked within the community to establish Islamic education within public schools across NSW. ISRE aims to teach all students a range of foundational principles that are an integral part of fostering a sense of Islamic Identity, regardless of their knowledge level. ISRE works with dedicated staff to provide a quality educational service for all students, which is delivered by a team of dedicated teachers that work in both primary and secondary schools.

VOLUNTEERS

A dedicated team of volunteers

ISRE, from the beginning has been steered by a dedicated team of primarily volunteers, who direct their time and efforts toward working for the betterment of our children.

Our teaching staff receives annual training and continual support throughout the school year to ensure the delivery of quality scripture classes to our students.

The ISRE team is comprised of the following:

  • Classroom teachers (primary and secondary)
  • Region Supervisors
  • Syllabus and Resource Committees
  • Administration staff
Testimonials

What teachers are saying

“Teaching Islam to K-2 students has been an incredibly rewarding experience. These little people melt my heart and I feel my role as an ISRE teacher is especially pertinent being that the Muslim community in our area is so small. Whenever I meet the parents in the street they always thank me for teaching their kids, and tell me how much their children enjoy the lessons. I didn’t expect to love teaching scripture this much. Alhamdullillah.”
Ms Saunders
K-2 teacher (former)
“AlhumdulillAh I feel very blessed to be given an opportunity to be involved in scripture teaching.I work full time and mother of three children .Two of my children are in Uni now and one in high school. I feel this is the best gift I could give to the community in particular to my people. I am a GP and it is so nice to see fresh healthy innocent faces every Wednessday and share with them little knowledge that I have through scripture material being provided. It helps me to keep balance in my life .Spending some time with my patients ,some time with my family and finally some time for myself as I find teaching scripture is food for my soul keeps me healthy . I find school staff very helpful and children looking forward to share their knowledge and experiences with me. I cannot thank Allah SWT and you enough to let me have this opportunity. JZK”
Summera Sehgol
“It is has been a wonderful experience teaching scripture through ISRE. I have been teaching for around three years which I found very rewarding and beneficial not only to myself but for many generations to come who, for certain, were in dire need to know so much about their religion but unfortunately did not have access to it. ISRE is a very organized organization who works really hard to provide a thorough curriculum to kids from k-6. Workbooks and teaching guidelines are provided well before each term to ensure that teachers are fully aware of the main ideas to teach. The syllabus is not bias to a certain sect and meets the requirements of students at different stages. It also covers important events in Islamic Hijri calendar such as Ramadan highlighting its importance to Muslims and our duties in that holy month. Every now and then it gets back to the basics, such as the five Pillars of Islam and 6 Pillars of Iman, to reinforce them in kids’ minds. The syllabus significantly embraces the importance of morals and how Islam values them citing pertinent hadith and Quranic verses. This is in addition to covering the history of early Muslims and their commitment to Islam which I had seen myself instilling pride in the hearts of my students. I am happy to say that many of my students, by the time they leave school, have started to see our religion in a different light and they are ready to continue along the righteous path they have started. On my behalf, I am very pleased to have satisfied these kids’ hunger for knowledge and to have helped our community in spreading profound knowledge on Islam. I wish ISRE organization all the best for their exceptional efforts and dedication in spreading the teachings of Islam to our kids, to all the region supervisors for their patience and dedication in making our teaching as smooth as possible and to all those who contributed their time to teach younger generations who hopefully will help restore the image of Islam.”
N.Wahba
Artarmon Public School, K-6