A Madrasah says having high-speed broadband has ‘revolutionised’ the way it operates.

The Muslim Society of Preston New Road is based in Blackburn and hosts Islamic classes for children of all ages. Staff at Madrasah Anwaar-Al-Quran said they did not have suitable internet in the building until Opus Broadband stepped in to see if they could help.

The broadband firm is offering free internet to charities and community groups as part of its ‘Internet For Everyone campaign’.

Mahmood Tantwala said: “We were looking at various companies to see how we can get our Internet into our educational establishment and most of the companies were saying you have got a landline to do this. 

“We then got somebody from Opus to come in and talk to us.

“We didn't have a previous provider at all. We wanted everything modernising and getting everyone online. 

“Previously, we had our work on projectors and now we do it online if we need presentations, as we can do it on a laptop.”

Mahmood said the wi-fi reaches across all the building and all the floors.

He said: “We use it in the classes. If the teachers need to do a lesson plan they can then present it online to the children.

“We would like to use it a more and more on things like our children's reports. Their teachers can put them on online to show how the kids are doing and the parents can pick it up as well. 

“During recruitment for the new year, we used to hand out forms that parents filled in and sent in and then we had to manually shift through them. But we introduced it online now with QR codes.  It is so much simpler."

Mahmood said having high-speed internet has helped them become more ‘efficient' and more 'productive’.

“We've had no problem since we have had it. Anytime there has been a problem it has been fixed quickly.

“We're relying more on internet now than ever before and eventually we want to go paperless. It is good for the environment and good for the madrasah.”