In no more than 300 words, please tell us about a global change you would like to see happen and how you would use policy making to achieve this.
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I am working as a curriculum maker at As-Salimah, an institution for children to learn Koran recitation, voluntarily. Since the beginning, parents would like to come accompanying their children to the course. Then, they stay in front of the mosque until it finished. That is indeed a good example of parents' responsibility for their children. However, the problem is what they used to do while waiting. As I started the course, the parents also started a conversation with each other. That might seem like a normal thing to do, yet sometimes it became a problem when they started to talk too loudly.
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Furthermore, every religion, including Islam, has its own restrictions, one of which is to not wear clothes which are too revealing. So, when coming to the mosque, they are expected to dress accordingly. Unfortunately, many of them did not really pay attention to their clothes when coming to the mosque and just wore what they had on at home, such as home dresses, tank tops etc. Indeed, those types of clothing are too revealing for Muslims to wear in public.
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Thus, to solve the problems, as a curriculum maker, I came up with a study program. Once a week, the children have to summary folklore or a story of a friend of the Prophet SAW and then ask their parents to give questions based on the story. The purpose is to tell the wisdom of the story not only to the children, but also the parents. After two months, there have been some changes. Now, while waiting, parents tend to read than conversing; the way they dress has also become more suitable for the occasion. Moreover, there are also some changes in the attitude of the children as they become more disciplined and polite towards the teachers.
In no more than 300 words, please tell us about a time that you used leadership skills to achieve a successful outcome, ideally related to policy making.
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When it comes to learning, many agree that early childhood education is essential for the growth and development of someone. Therefore, many parents prefer to put their children in a pre-kindergarten to provide education for their loved ones as early as possible. That is not a wrong thing to do. However, they forget that the first education a child should receive is a type of education given by his parents, particularly his mother.
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Why mother? It is believed that an educated man brings about an educated person whilst an educated woman brings about an educated generation. The reason is that a child tends to have more intense interaction and bond with his mother that he might learn more from his mother than his father. If the mother of a child is well-educated and well-mannered, she would like to teach only good things to her child. Thus, the more numbers of smart mothers, the more numbers of smart generations as well.
To achieve the goal of generating smarter women, my vision is to create an educational program implementing more seminars about parenting in schools for both students and parents. Then, I will also prepare a specialised curriculum involving lessons on how to be a good mother for female students. To be able to spread that notion, it indeed requires at least a policy change. One way for a citizen to start a policy change is by becoming an advocate. Thus, to be the advocate, I intend to apply the vision to the institution I am working in, which is As-Salimah. If the goal has been achieved in the institution, it is expected for the public to notice the advantages of empowering women through education, including the government. Later, the program should be considered to be applied nationally and then also globally.