The Challenges of Islamic education in Southeast Asia: impacts and prospects

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The utilization of information and communication technology among Islamic secondary school teachers in Malaysia

Malaysia has implemented the first computer system in 1966. Since then, the government – through Ministry of Education – has introduced various initiatives to facilitate the adoption and diffusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In line with the Vision 2020, Ministry of Education has draft ways so as to integrate ICT into education system. Malaysian government has invested millions of Ringgit for the usage of ICT in education. The investments include the building of computer labs, supplying of PCs, and related peripherals, training of teachers, and development of instructional material. The research will concentrate on the utilization, self-efficacy, integration, and satisfactory level of the Islamic Religious Secondary School teachers of Malaysia. Although there are only 55 of such schools but these schools are actually a sought after schools by parents due to its capability of producing leaders academically as well as spiritually. The study will deal with issues such as self-efficacy, utilization, and training needs/provided as well as the integration of ICT in teaching and learning. The analysis is adopting principle component analysis to determine the predictors of the underlying variables as well the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to strengthen the analysis

Self awareness of a leader in Islamic management: ideal and possibility

Goodness and morality are the basic pillars that maintain the structure of every healthy organization or management. In this context, the Qur’an provides the ideal way of conduct, which is that a leader can attain moral perfection by righteous work (camal salih) and being of good character namely, muttaqi leader. Having a good character ensures that a leader behaves properly towards other members of undertaken organisation and this will keep social order in management. Din-al-Islam, explicitly cultivates in every Muslim leader the awareness of accountability and responsibility before Allah which is very crucial for Islamic management. The sphere of awareness builds up sincerity in one’s life or a leader because one’s acts are actually free of external forces, and merely for Allah’s pleasure. He also nourishes a life of virtues such as piety, patience, always seeks repentance, truthfulness, fear, hope and love of Allah, reliance on Allah, thankful praise and so on. In fact, this sensitivity may avoid source of evils or corruptions from all sort of management. The awareness of accountability is one of the elements of Islamic tarbiyyah which may form the individual leadership responsibility. This tarbiyyah begins for everyone at the age of baligh (puberty) when he or she is supposed to shoulder responsibility as prescribed in the Sharicah and bear the consequences of all his or her deeds. If a leader is devoid or unaware of the sense of accountability and responsibility before Allah, he or she actually may get involved in sin and corruption. The beneficent tarbiyyah of a sense of accountability and responsibility may nourish a leader’s relationship of complete obedience and trust in Allah. More significantly, a leader who understands and realises his responsibilities and is mindful of these will act and behave in a good manner with a firm Iman and develop a strong relationship with Allah. This may enable a leader to carry out his acts and commitments in all spheres of management in an orderly way, to seek virtue by all possible means, to behave positively rather than destructively whether privately or publicly, and to correct his mistakes and repent from his sins. If a leader practises this tarbiyyah, then the door which leads to corruption in management should stay shut, and the possibility that he or she will commit a bad deed or corruption is very low and rather rare. This concept paper attempts to examine and discuss the ideals of self-awareness and the efforts how self-awareness creates an atmosphere where every individual leadership feels ashamed of his evil deeds, is responsible for his actions to himself and others, and is aware of the punishment in the Hereafter for the sins and corruptions committed. If this attitude is embedded in every individual leader, then a righteous environment in organisation or management will eventually emerge and all sort of management will be efficiently go through

Analysis of Contractors Performance in Gaza Strip Construction Projects

The construction industry has acquired a poor reputation in performance issues. Project success is dependent on, amongst other factors, the performance of the contractors. The aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate the main factors affecting the performance of construction projects in the Gaza strip. Sixty questionnaires were randomly distributed to contractors and 46 questionnaires were received (77% respondent rate). Sixty three factors were identified and categorized into ten groups. The level of importance of these factors were measured and ranked by their importance index from the contractors’ perspectives. The most important factors were average delay arising from closures and materials shortage, availability of resources as planned through project duration, leadership skills of the project manager, escalation of material prices, availability of personnel with high experience and qualification and quality

Performance of construction projects: Perception of owners in Palestine

Management of construction projects in Palestine has faced many problems due to various reasons, such as political uncertainty, scarcity of materials and equipment, and lack of regulation. The performance of construction projects in the Gaza Strip has been a source of concern for contracting parties. This paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey conducted on the main factors affecting the performance of construction projects in the Gaza Strip. 25 questionnaires were randomly distributed to owners and 17 questionnaires were received (68% respondent rate). Sixty three factors were identified, categorized into ten groups, evaluated and ranked from the owners' perspectives. The most important factors which affect the performance of construction projects were average delay because of closures and materials shortage, availability of resources as planned through project duration, leadership skills of project managers, escalation of material prices, availability of personnel with high experience and qualification, and quality of equipments and raw materials in project. Innovation and learning was the highest ranked group according to the respondents. It is recommended that a new contract awarding approach by giving less weight to prices and more weight to the capabilities and past performance of contractors should be adopted. It is necessary to establish proper industry regulations and appropriate mechanism for proper contractors' enforcement. Owners are recommended to facilitate payment to contractors in order to overcome delay, disputes and claims

A project management competency framework for industrialised building system (IBS) construction

The Malaysian government has been promoting the use of the industrialised building system (IBS) for construction projects since 2003. Worldwide, there are a number of project management competency standards available, but they are generic in nature. This study was conducted to devise a competency framework suitable for industrialised building system (IBS) construction projects. A three-pronged mixed research method comprising qualitative interviews, a quantitative questionnaire survey and face-to-face validation was adopted. The competencies generated were classified as primary and secondary, and assigned to the various initial, planning, implementation, monitoring and closing construction life cycle phases. The proposal fills a gap in the project management landscape by testing and combining academic and non-academic literature with the ‘emergent’ competencies from the interviews. These are used in conjunction with conventional project management wisdom. IBS is increasingly being applied worldwide, although under different terminologies; therefore, the framework could also potentially be of use beyond Malaysia

Difficulty breathing or just a case of the nerves? Incidental finding of primary pleural schwannoma in a COVID-19 survivor

Schwannoma is a rare tumor that arises from the Schwann cells, which are specialized, myelin-producing cells of the peripheral nerve sheaths. As anatomic logic would dictate, these masses commonly occur in the skull base, cerebellopontine angle, and posterior spinal roots. Of this already rare entity, rarer still are the pleural schwannomas, representing approximately 1-2% of thoracic tumors. These tumors commonly affect adults with a propensity for the third and sixth decades of life and a comparative male predilection. Schwannomas are benign, indolent, and follow an asymptomatic course. As such, they often come to light incidentally.Here we report a case of primary pleural schwannomas in a 68-year-old female, found incidentally on a CT scan of the chest. To the best of our knowledge and literature review, no other similar case has been reported in our country, Pakistan. Around three weeks before her presentation, she was diagnosed with COVID-19. Her infection had run a mild course with quick recovery without the need for any hospitalization. Therefore, the manifestation of shortness of breath after resolution of all other symptoms prompted a further workup. Radiographic chest x-ray revealed an incidental finding of a large right upper lobe lung mass, slightly impinging on the trachea. This was followed by a chest CT scan at our radiological imaging facility, which showed a large, well-encapsulated, right upper lobe lung mass in the paraspinal apical location. She then underwent an image-guided biopsy of the aforementioned mass, pathological analysis of which was suggestive of a benign peripheral nerve sheath tumor (PNST) arising from the pleura (pleural schwannoma). She underwent right posterolateral thoracotomy with uneventful complete surgical removal of the pleural-based lung mass. Postoperative investigations included a chest x-ray that showed interval complete resection of the mass. Currently, she is asymptomatic and her clinical condition has improved with the successful resumption of her daily routine.Physicians thus need to keep pleural schwannomas in mind as a probable diagnosis of intrathoracic tumors. Indolent and asymptomatic, they are very amenable to surgical resection with little to no chances of recurrence in the long term. However, these patients should be closely followed with repeat imaging studies when symptomatic

Knowledge, attitude and perceptions of Muslim cancer patients regarding cancer treatment during Ramadan: Results from a tertiary care hospital Karachi

Objective: To assess the knowledge and attitude of Muslim cancer patients regarding cancer treatment during Ramadan.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from July to August 2015, and comprised cancer patients. .Adult Muslim cancer patients receiving active oncological treatment or on surveillance were included. Patients on only supportive treatment were excluded. SPSS 19 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 265 patients, 87(32.8%) were males and 178(67.2%) were females. The overall mean age was 49±13.87 years. Besides, 184(70.9%) patients belonged to the middle class. Breast cancer was the most common cancer 106(40.6%). Overall, 153(57.9%) patients had stage II disease. Further, 201(80%) patients had 0-1 performance status. Moreover, 180(72%) patients were receiving different forms of chemotherapeutic agents. It was found that 113(54.3%) patients sought advice regarding fasting. Most of the patients who observed fast, i.e. 214(81%), had an early stage disease and 19(7.1%) were on hormonal therapy. Patients who did not fast mostly attributed this to fatigue 69(26.3%). Conclusion: Only half of the patients sought advice on fasting and those having early disease more.Conclusions: Only half of the patients sought advice on fasting and those having early disease more frequently observed fast

Evaluating the efficiency of log procurement operation in Peninsular Malaysia

In Peninsular Malaysia, the most common log procurement technique is by directional felling. The main purposes of carrying out directional felling is to ensure the quality of logs with less damage, reduce the impacts on residual stands and to ease the extraction of logs from the felling site to the temporary log pond. Usually, the direction of felling is not always precise as predetermined. It is likely that size and/or weight of the tree canopy, which is difficult to estimate, can change the direction of a falling tree, which will result in damages to the residual trees. Changes in felling direction may also jeopardise the feller’s safety, which must be given top-priority consideration. In this study, we compare the predetermined direction and actual direction that the tree was felled, and classify the extent of residual tree damages into three classes: (I) No damage, (II) Minor damage, and (III) Severe damage. A forest area of 72.06 hectares (ha), namely compartment 133A of Ulu Sedili Forest Reserve was observed for this study. The result shows that 33.3% of felled trees fell along the path of the predetermined direction, while 66.7% did not. Meanwhile, damages recorded for the three classes of (I), (II) and (III) are 78.75%, 9.35% and 11.90%, respectively

Benchmarking of postgraduate programmes in education in Malaysia

Introduction: Of late education organisations have been held accountable to address quality-related questions. EveI)' institution of higher education is subjected to an increasing demand for quality assurance. the underlying concern being the degree to which the "totality of the features aad characteristics of the organisation's product or service bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs" (International Standard Organisation 1986 definition. emphasis added). This means that higher earning institutions are expected to deliver products and services at some acceptable level of utility or benefit, specifically with respect to their core business teaching and learning. To address this pressing concern, education organisations have been assessing themselves by asking questions such as, "(1) How well are we doing compared to others, (2) how good do we want to be, (3) who is doing it the best, (4) how do they do it, (5) how can we adapt what they do in our institution, and (6) how can we be better thaa the best?" (Alslele, 1995: 2)