Choosing someone to teach your child the Quran is not the same as choosing a maths tutor. You are handing over something you care about deeply, usually to a person you have never met, over a video call. It is reasonable to feel cautious about that.
Here are the questions worth asking before you commit to any online Quran academy, including ours. A good academy will answer all of them without hesitating.
1. Who exactly will be teaching my child?
Ask whether your child will have the same teacher every week, or whoever happens to be free. Consistency matters enormously for children. A teacher who has taught your child for three months knows which letters they struggle with, when they are tired, and how to keep them going on a difficult day. A rotating pool of teachers knows none of that, and your child starts again every time.
Also ask about the teacher’s qualifications: have they memorised the Quran, and are they trained in Tajweed? Those are two different things, and both matter.
2. Is the class one to one, or a group?
This is the single biggest factor in how quickly a child improves. In a group of ten, a child might read aloud for two minutes in a thirty-minute lesson. The rest of the time they are listening to other children, and quietly practising their own mistakes without correction.
One to one means the teacher hears every letter. When your child mispronounces a daad, it gets corrected in that moment rather than three weeks later once it has become a habit. Group classes are cheaper for a reason.
3. Can I sit in on a lesson?
The answer should be an immediate yes, without conditions, and without needing to give notice. Any academy that discourages parents from observing lessons is telling you something important.
In practice most parents watch the first few lessons closely, then drift to checking in occasionally. That is healthy. But the door should always be open.
4. Do you offer a trial class, and what does it cost?
A trial class should be free and should not require card details. Be wary of a “free trial” that asks for payment information up front and starts billing automatically unless you cancel.
Use the trial properly. Watch how the teacher handles your child being shy, or distracted, or wrong. That tells you more than any brochure.
5. How do you assess my child’s current level?
A good teacher will ask your child to read something in the first lesson rather than relying on what you wrote on a form. Parents routinely over- or under-estimate where their child actually is, usually with the best intentions.
If an academy assigns a course without ever hearing your child read, they are guessing.
6. What happens if my child falls behind?
Children fall behind. There are exams, illness, holidays, and weeks where nothing goes in. What matters is whether the academy adjusts or just pushes on.
Ask directly: if my child is struggling with a particular rule, will you slow down? The answer should be yes, without a discussion about the syllabus.
7. Would my daughter be taught by a woman?
For many families this is not a preference but a requirement, and it is a perfectly reasonable thing to insist on. Ask whether female teachers are always available or only sometimes, and whether that would change if your usual teacher were unavailable.
At Madina Teaching Institute every teacher is a female hafiza, so the question does not arise. Other academies vary, so ask.
8. How do you keep children safe online?
Reasonable answers include: lessons are one to one with a known teacher, parents can join at any time, lessons are not recorded without permission, and student details are not shared. Ask whether there is a written privacy policy, and read it.
If an academy has no privacy policy at all, that tells you how much thought has gone into handling your child’s information.
9. What does it actually cost, and what am I locked into?
Look for clear monthly pricing, no joining fee, and no long contract. Ask what happens if you need to pause for a family holiday or during Ramadan, and get the answer before you enrol rather than after.
A note on price
It is tempting to choose on price alone, particularly when the range is wide. But the cheapest option is almost always a group class with a rotating teacher, and the difference shows up two years later when your child reads fluently but incorrectly, and everything has to be unpicked.
Somewhere in the middle, with a consistent qualified teacher and genuine one-to-one attention, is usually where the value sits.
Trust your instinct after the trial
After the trial class, ask yourself one question: did my child seem comfortable? Children are quite good at sensing whether an adult is patient with them. If your child came away willing to do it again, that is worth a great deal.
A short checklist to take with you
If you would rather not work through all nine questions with every academy you contact, these five will separate a serious provider from a weak one quickly:
- Will my child have the same qualified teacher every week?
- Is the lesson genuinely one to one?
- Can I sit in whenever I want, without arranging it first?
- Is the trial free, with no card details taken?
- Is there a written privacy policy covering my child’s information?
An academy that answers yes to all five, without hedging, is worth trying. One that hesitates on any of them is worth a follow-up question before you commit.
If you would like to see how we teach, you can book a free trial class. If you are still working out where your child should begin, our courses page sets out each programme and who it suits.
