The Influence of Students’ Attitudes on their Perceptions of Learning Jawi Script in Secondary School

Jawi Script holds a special status and was not only used in the Malay Peninsula in the past, but also widely spread throughout the Nusantara region. It played an important role as a medium of communication between the people and the Malay rulers in the olden days, particularly in the writing of official letters, the compilation of legal manuscripts, and various administrative documents. However, its role has since declined and is increasingly being forgotten. This decline has also significantly affected the ability and appreciation of Muslims to read the Holy Quran. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the influence of students’ attitudes on their perceptions of learning Jawi script. The participants of this study were among 113 Form Five students at SMK Putrajaya Presint 8 (1), Putrajaya, Malaysia. This is a quantitative study that employs questionnaires as the main method for collecting primary data. The findings show that the respondents have little interest in using Jawi script in their daily lives, which proves that Jawi is increasingly being marginalized. This is evident as respondents do not spend much time revising Jawi lessons and show little interest in purchasing reading materials written in Jawi. Nevertheless, despite the lack of enthusiasm towards the Jawi script, the majority of respondents acknowledged that learning Jawi has helped them improve their Quranic reading fluency.