Kuala Lampur, Jan. 26 -- The one glimmer of light that comes with Dr Mahathir Mohamad holding the education portfolio is the hope that he will finally have the authority to speed up his plan to reform national education, and cut down the amount of hours currently being spent to teach religious rituals in schools.

The latter can be largely attributed to the administration of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who immediately succeeded Dr Mahathir.

In his zeal to leave his legacy of "Islam Hadhari", Abdullah had proposed the J-QAF model a few years into his premiership.

The initials stand for jawi, Quran, Arabic language, and fardhu ain (obligatory religious knowledge) with the goal of among others getting students to read and write the jawi script, ...