Children across New Zealand learn the Quran one to one over video with a qualified teacher, explained in English or in Urdu rather than Arabic. Lessons sit after school on New Zealand time, fees are published in New Zealand dollars from NZ$69 a month, and every family begins with up to three free classes.
A small community, spread thin
New Zealand's Muslim community is concentrated in Auckland, with smaller communities in Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch. For a family outside those cities the nearest Quran class may be an hour away or may not exist at all, and for families inside them the class that does exist is often taught in the language of whichever community built it.
Neither problem is about effort. Both are about distance and language, and both stop being problems once the lesson happens at your own table.
How the timing works from New Zealand
- After school
- A 4pm or 5pm slot in Auckland is covered by teachers who work those hours deliberately rather than as an exception.
- Before school
- A 7am slot on New Zealand time is the simplest of all to arrange, and it suits many families better than the end of a long school day.
- Weekends
- Saturday and Sunday mornings on New Zealand time.
- Thirty minutes
- Three or four of them a week suits a child starting from scratch better than one long lesson.
Your child keeps the same slot and the same teacher every week. When the clocks change in April and September the slot moves with you.
New Zealand is the furthest ahead of any country we teach in, which is why the morning slots matter here more than anywhere else. A family that finds after-school hard should ask about a before-school lesson rather than give up on the week.
Starting from no Arabic at all
Most children we are given in New Zealand start at the Noorani Qaida: the twenty-nine letters, the short and long vowels, sukoon and shadda, and how a letter changes shape when it joins the next one. Four to ten months at three or four lessons a week, depending on the age they start.
The hard part is the sounds English does not have. Telling ع from أ, or ح from ه, is something a teacher has to hear in the moment and stop. It is the one thing that does not survive being taught to a room, and the reason these lessons are one to one.
What a month costs in New Zealand dollars
- 2 days a week
- 8 lessons of 30 minutes — NZ$69 a month
- 3 days a week
- 12 lessons of 30 minutes — NZ$87 a month
- 4 days a week
- 16 lessons of 30 minutes — NZ$105 a month
- 5 days a week
- 20 lessons of 30 minutes — NZ$115 a month
Charged in New Zealand dollars. No registration fee, no contract and no minimum term, and no card is taken for the trial classes.
What to check before enrolling anywhere
- Is the lesson genuinely one to one, or a small group described as personal attention?
- Is the fee published in New Zealand dollars before anyone asks for your phone number?
- Will it be the same teacher every week, and can you have their name before you pay?
- Is a second adult from the academy on the call, and may you sit in unannounced?
- What happens to a lesson your child misses through illness — is it lost, or moved?
These are not our questions. They are the five that separate one academy from another, and any academy worth enrolling with answers all five in a sentence each.
Where to go next
Quran classes in Auckland
Lesson times and what a week looks like on New Zealand time.
Online Quran classes for kids
What we teach children, how a lesson runs and who teaches it.
Online Quran academy for kids
How teachers are chosen, and how you follow what your child is doing.
What a month costs
Every plan, in your own currency, published in full.