Judge an online Quran academy on four things: who is actually in the lesson with your child, whether the same teacher comes back every week, what happens when you want to change or stop, and whether the price on the website is the price you pay. Everything else on an academy website is decoration.
Every academy says the same four things
Qualified teachers. Flexible timings. Free trial. Affordable fees. Open six academy websites and you will read those four lines six times, in the same order, sometimes in the same words. They are not lies. They are just not information, because nobody writes the opposite.
So they cannot help you choose. What helps is asking the questions an academy has to answer with a specific fact rather than an adjective.
The four that actually separate them
Who else is in the lesson
A one-to-one class means your child and an adult, alone on a video call. Ask who else is present and what the academy does about it. If the answer is a policy document rather than a person, that is your answer.
Whether it is the same teacher every week
Some academies run a pool: whoever is free takes the lesson. It works for the rota and not for the child, who spends the first ten minutes being assessed again by a stranger.
What happens when you want out
Notice period, refunds, and whether they hold a card. An academy that is comfortable with you leaving is usually comfortable with you staying.
Whether the price is the price
Registration fee, materials fee, exam fee, a higher rate for a female teacher. Ask for the monthly total for the plan you want, in your currency, before the trial.
Questions worth asking in the first message
- Will my child have the same teacher at the same time every week?
- Who else is on the call, and can I join any lesson without arranging it first?
- What happens if we need to pause for a month?
- Is there any fee beyond the monthly fee?
- What is your notice period, and do you keep my card on file?
You are not testing their knowledge of Tajweed with these. You are testing whether they answer plainly. An academy that sends a brochure instead of five short answers will also send a brochure when something goes wrong.
How we answer them
- Same teacher
- Yes, same teacher and same time every week
- Who else is in the lesson
- A supervisor, on every class. All our supervisors are women
- Watching a lesson
- One Google Meet link that never changes. Open it whenever you like
- Fees
- Monthly, paid for the month ahead. No registration fee, no contract, no minimum term
- Card at signup
- None taken
We are not claiming these make us the best academy. We are claiming they are the questions worth asking every academy, including this one.
One thing to ignore
Student counts. Every academy publishes one and none of them can be checked. A number on a homepage tells you what a marketing person typed, not how your child's Thursday lesson will go. Read the reviews instead, and read the ones-star ones first: they are the only place a parent writes what actually happened.
Related
How to check an online Quran teacher
What to verify before the first lesson.
What to ask in a free trial class
The trial is your interview, not theirs.
Online Quran academy for kids
How this one is set up.