Proceedings of International Conference on Accounting Research & Education 2014 ISBN 978-967-5741-23-4 1 APPLYING STAKEHOLDER APPROACH IN DEVELOPING ACCOUNTABILITY INDICATORS FOR TAHFIZ CENTERS Hamidah Bani 1 , Maheran Katan 2 *, Abd Halim Mohd Noor 3 , Muhammad Mukhlis Abdul Fatah 1 Abstract Tahfiz centers are institutions that are accountable in educating students who can memorize and recite the whole Al-Quran. The number of tahfiz centers in Malaysia has grown from only 58 in 1999 to 278 in 2011 and more than 91% of them are privately owned. However, the extend of privately owned tahfiz centers (POTC) accountability is unexplored whereas issues related to their accountability such as unlawful fundraising activities, mismanagement, sexual misconduct, bully cases, safety problems, and inadequate funds have been reported in the newspaper. Thus, there is a need to have accountability indicators for POTC which can be used to monitor the status of the tahfiz educational system and to track how it changes over time. Regulators can use the indicators to hold the POTC accountable for their performance. Moreover, accountability indicators are helpful in pinpointing the problems and target improvement efforts more effectively. This study proposes accountability indicators for POTC from student’s perspective representing one of the stakeholders. Future research will apply the indicators in contructing accountability index of POTC. Highly accountable POTC will act as catalysts and partners in the government effort to raise quality standard and to create an international tahfiz education brand for Malaysia in line with The Education National Key Economic Area (NKEA). Key words: Tahfiz, Accountability indicators, Stakeholder approach, Accountability mechanisms, Huffaz 1.0 Introduction Tahfiz centers are institutions that specialize in educating students who can memorize and recite the whole Al-Quran (huffaz) (Muhamad al-Bakri, 2013). The memorization process of the Al-Quran encompasses three stages; learning the Al-Quran by heart, memorizing and perfecting the ability to write the whole Al-Quran on paper or slate without any error (Taiwo, 2014). The Talaqqi method (face to face or deal with teachers) and Musyafahah method (word of mouth with lip-reading teacher watching to get the correct pronunciation of tajweed) are being used in enhancing the the learning and memorization of the Al-Quran (Mustafa & Basri, 2014). The centers are managed either by federal government through Islamic Development Department Malaysia, state governments or privately owned. More than 91% of tahfiz centers in Malaysia are privately owned (Haz, 2007). The privately owned tahfiz centers (POTC) may be owned by foundations, non-government organizations or individuals. POTC may register under the Register of Society, state government and Ministry of Education. The funding of 1 Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia 3 Accounting Research Institute (ARI), UiTM *Corresponding author, Address: UiTM Kampus Bandaraya, 110 Jln Hang Tuah, 75300 Melaka; Tel: 012-664-5599; email: maheran68@melaka.uitm.edu.my