The short answer
Ask four questions before you pay anyone: who checked this teacher's certificates, who else is present in the lesson, where is the fee published, and what happens to my money if we stop. An academy that answers all four in writing is a different proposition from one that answers none of them.
The four questions
Who checked the teacher?
Certificates and references, checked by the academy before a student is assigned. Ask whether that happened and who did it. Ours are checked before any teacher is given a student.
Who else is in the lesson?
A one-to-one class between an adult and a child should not be unsupervised. A supervisor is on every class here, and all of our supervisors are women.
Where is the fee published?
If the price only arrives by WhatsApp after you give a phone number, the price is not a price, it is a negotiation. Ours is on the site in six currencies.
What happens if we stop?
Ask for the refund policy as a link, not as a sentence in chat. Ours is published, and unused balance carries over if you pause.
Things that look like credentials and are not
- A photograph of a certificate with no name you can check.
- A claim of thousands of students with no reviews anywhere public.
- Five star ratings shown on the academy's own site only. Look for a Trustpilot or Google profile you can open yourself.
- “Al-Azhar graduate” used as a brand rather than about a named teacher you will actually get.
None of these mean an academy is bad. They mean you have not been given anything to check, and you should ask for something you can.
What a good answer sounds like
A straight academy will tell you the teacher's name before the trial, keep that teacher on your slot every week, and let you watch any lesson without arranging it first. If a request to sit in causes friction, you have your answer already.
Related
Child safety in online Quran classes
Supervisors, one link, and what you can watch.
What happens in a first online Quran lesson
So you know what a good one looks like.
Online Quran academies compared
Six academies side by side on published price and trial terms.