Private Islamic Schools in the Philippines as a Source for Balanced Education: The Case of Wisdom Islamic School, Davao City Inc.

Abstrak

Young Muslim students in the majority-Christian country of the Philippines face the perplexing challenge of selecting the type of institution that best provides the kind of education they pursue – a quandary of preferring secular education over religious education and vice versa. Private Islamic integrated schools seek to deliver that balanced education to address their concerns; and “Wisdom Islamic School, Davao City Inc.” is one such example, as it implements the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) K-12 Curriculum in addition to its own Islamic curriculum. This qualitative research sought to find out the extent to which a private Islamic school can offer such education, studying the case of Wisdom Islamic School through interviews and focus groups, garnering feedback from fourteen parents of students, those current and former. Through thematic analysis, the participants did perceive this institution to be balanced in its approach. This study has the potential limitation of unintentional bias from the respondents, as it gathered perspectives from those who have already made the decision to enroll their children at Wisdom Islamic School, with the aim to provide an insight to future researchers and educators as to what can be expected from such institution.

Keywords: Islamic education, private school, private madrasah, balanced education, DepEd