PETALING JAYA: The parent of a student at one of Malaysia’s oldest schools has apologized for claiming that a teacher had barred non-Muslims from being appointed class monitors.

This comes after a screenshot of the parent’s claim went viral. The claim had been posted on a Facebook group for the Kuala Lumpur school’s alumni.

According to the original posting, the parent said a school teacher had told his son’s class through a WhatsApp group chat that a non-Muslim cannot be a class monitor.

When contacted, the parent clarified that the matter had been resolved.

“It is a misunderstanding on my part. I have posted an apology to the school teacher and headmaster in the same channel that was supposed to be private,” he said.

It is understood that the school has explained the matter to the education ministry.

The system of education in the Muslim world was unintegrated and undifferentiated. Learning took place in a variety of institutions, among them the ḥalqah, or study circle; the maktab (kuttab), or elementary school; the palace schools; bookshops and literary salons; and the various types of colleges, the meshed, the masjid, and the madrasa. All the schools taught essentially the same subjects.

The simplest type of early Muslim education was offered in the mosques, where scholars who had congregated to discuss the Qurʾān began before long to teach the religious sciences to interested adults.