Two different things are sold under the name online Islamic school. One is a full-time school that replaces your child's day school and teaches maths and English alongside Islamic subjects. The other is after-school Islamic learning that sits next to ordinary school. Most families want the second and search for the first by accident.
The two things, side by side
- Full-time online Islamic school
- Replaces day school. Maths, English, science, plus Islamic subjects. Term dates, report cards, sometimes accreditation
- After-school Islamic learning
- Sits alongside day school. Quran reading, Tajweed, and Islamic Studies. A few lessons a week
- Hours a week
- Full-time: a school day. After-school: usually under three hours
- Who it suits
- Full-time: homeschooling families. After-school: nearly everyone else
Both are legitimate. They are not competitors, and a website that blurs the two is usually hoping you will not notice which one you are buying.
How to tell which one a website is selling
- Look for term dates and a timetable. A full-time school has them. After-school learning has slots you choose.
- Look for maths and English. If the only subjects are Quran, Arabic and Islamic Studies, it is after-school learning whatever the page is called.
- Look for the word accredited, and then look for who accredits it. An unnamed accreditation is not one.
- Look at the price. A full school year does not cost the same as a few lessons a week.
Which one most families need
If your child is happy at their day school and you want them to read the Quran properly and know their duas, you do not need a full-time Islamic school. You need three or four short lessons a week with a teacher who comes back every time.
Parents often arrive at the bigger option because the smaller one sounds too modest to be serious. It is the other way round: an hour and a half a week, kept up for two years, does more than a term of full-time schooling that the family cannot sustain.
What we are, plainly
- We are the second kind. After-school, one to one, live on video.
- We do not teach maths, English or science, and we do not issue a school certificate.
- We teach children, ages 4 and a half to 17. We are not an adult academy.
- Islamic Studies runs inside the same lesson as Quran reading, at whatever split the family wants.
Related
Weekend Islamic school or online classes?
The trade-off most families are weighing.
Islamic classes for kids
What is actually taught, week by week.
Online Islamic school for kids
How ours is set up.