Vision
The vision of Panjtan School is to promote the holistic development of its students by facilitating spiritual, physical, and faith-based social growth and wellbeing.
It is our mission to guide and nurture the mind and hearts of our children, in a positive and encouraging learning environment. We work to provide Islamic knowledge and its application in this day and age, in order to allow children to navigate their daily dealings with religiously inspired wisdom.
Our end goal is for our children to become confident and successful ambassadors of the Holy Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his Progeny (as), with God-consciousness.
Aims and Objectives
- Providing children with a clear model of an Islamic life in this day and age, through innovation and positive engagement.
- Catering to the religious, spiritual, and social wellbeing of all children belonging to the Shia Ithna Asheri faith, irrespective of their ethnicity or culture backgrounds.
- Providing high-quality teachings of the Holy Qur’an, Aqaid, Fiqh, Islamic History, Islamic Etiquettes, Namaz Theory and Urdu with an integrated approach.
- Encouraging every child to develop his/her relationship with Allah (swt), Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his Holy Household (as).
- Catering to the social needs of the community through many regular extra-curricular activities and a solid reward & recognition program, for both teachers and students.
- Creating an environment that will enhance independent learning and critical thinking.
- Keeping the new generation connected with their values and language by conducting language classes.
- Providing an orderly, positive, engaging and safe atmosphere conducive to attaining these goals.
History
Panjtan School (Victoria) was established in 1990, under the umbrella of Panjtan Society of Victoria, a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne, Australia.
The School started with a handful of students and a couple of teachers and was initially held within the Imambargah premises. In 2005, as the number of students grew, and the staff grew with it, we hired our first local School and were able to utilise separate classrooms and separate out the grades by age.
Our systems and processes improved significantly with time as we streamlined and modernised our approach, allowing students to connect and engage better.
During 2020, we had over 300 students enrolled, despite the COVID 19 pandemic. We met the challenges of 2020 and continued to impart Islamic knowledge, by taking the initiative to move all our classes and activities to online platforms. This limited the impact on students’ Islamic learning and significantly improved the skillsets of our staff.
In 2021, we are expecting to enrol nearly 400 students and are excited to implement new innovations.
Structure
Panjtan School runs a program parallel to the Victorian school grades and has classes starting from Kindergarten to Grade 10. It operates every Sunday from 10.45 am to 2.30 pm.
We have two operational components;
ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF
- 20+ volunteer admin
- Attend to the facilities and activities of the school, working closely with teachers, parents & students.
- Some administrative roles include the Patron, Principal, Registrar, Treasurer, Subject Coordinators, Policy & Public Relations Coordinator, IT Support Team, Teaching Resources & Syllabus Coordinator, Extra-curricular Activities Coordinator and Health & Safety Team.
TEACHING STAFF
- 80+ volunteer teachers
- Teachers hold expertise and training in delivering the course content diligently and to a high standard.
Future Plans
Implementation of the Tarbiyah curriculum in a progressive manner.
- Training our teachers with skillsets of improved teaching methodologies.
- Focused training for Qur’an teachers, for successful implementation of the new and improved Qur’an curriculum.
- Continue to provide enhanced IT resources and support, to empower teachers in delivering the content and meeting the technical advancements of the current generation.
- Providing a mentoring program for the youth to work closely in community services, under the guidance of our Patron Maulana Kumail Mehdavi, Principal Br Ahmed Reza Dawood and the entire dedicated team of Panjtan School.
Challenges
- Involvement of parents in School events.
- Delay in the construction of School’s own building.
- Culture shift to activity-based learning.
- Moulding assessments to focus on student development, rather than memory and the number of marks.
- Maintaining student dedication and interest in higher Grades.
- Motivating students to pursue further studies and Islamic education after graduating from Panjtan School.
