Takes getting used to: Students attending class for the first time on a Friday after Johor reverted to a Saturday-Sunday weekend. — Bernama
ISKANDAR PUTERI: Ungku Ibrahim Ungku Mohammad Nawi had wanted to sleep in, like he usually does on Fridays.
But not yesterday. For the first time in his life, the Form Three students had to be up at 5am to attend school on a Friday.
The 15-year-old SMK Medini student said he had never been to school on a Friday before and it was awkward in the morning.
“When my parents woke me up at around 5am and told me to get ready, it felt a bit weird because previously Fridays and Saturdays were rest days in Johor.
“But when I reached my school at 7am and I saw my classmates, it felt like a normal school day for me except that the school session ended at around noon, which is early,” he said.
Ungku Ibrahim added that he preferred the new weekend as it gave him and his siblings time to attend Friday prayers with their father.
“My father runs a pizza shop. Because Friday was not a school day, he would rush home from his restaurant and pick us up to go the mosque.
“After prayers, he would send us back home before rushing back to his restaurant. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are busy times at the restaurant,” he said.
His school is also one of nine that have been given permission to have prayers within their premises so he and his friends stayed longer to perform the prayers at school.
“It makes things easier. My father and my siblings did not have to rush and we could perform Friday prayers at school,” he said.
Four schools in Johor Baru, two each in Muar and Mersing and one in Kota Tinggi have been given permission to hold Friday prayers within their compounds, state state education and information committee chairman Aznan Tamin said.
“The Johor Islamic Religious Council (MAINJ) has given certification to teachers at these nine schools to lead the congregation,” he said.
Another SMK Medini student Muhammad Shahrul Shahreeza, 17, said having Friday prayers at school was an interesting experience.
“I stay in the school dormitory and male students had to take a bus to attend Friday prayers at the Kota Iskandar mosque about 10km away.
“It was tiring but now, with the change in the state’s rest days, we can perform the prayers inside the school with our own teacher as the imam,” he said.
On Oct 7, 2024, Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim announced that the state would change its weekends back to Saturday and Sunday after 11 years, the latest in a series of switches.
Johor had observed a Friday-Saturday weekend since Jan 1, 2014. That reversed a 1994 decision when the state switched to a Saturday-Sunday weekend, during Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s tenure as mentri besar.
Under British rule, the Unfederated Malay State had had a Friday-Saturday weekend.
Father of three Mohd Nizam Nordin, 49, who works as a manager at a private company, said he was really happy with the Saturday-Sunday weekend.
“It gives my family more quality time as previously, my children had to attend school from Sunday to Thursday while I worked from Monday to Friday.
“We only had Saturday together. On Friday, I had to rush home to pick my two boys and go to the mosque before sending them back home and going back to office,” he said.
