Most online Quran arrangements do not end because the teaching was poor. They end because the time stopped working.
A slot that was fine in September collides with football in January. The clocks change and a 6pm lesson becomes a 5pm one. Ramadan arrives and the whole evening rearranges itself. Each time, the lesson is moved, then moved again, and somewhere in the third rescheduling it quietly stops happening.
Choosing the slot well at the start prevents most of this. It takes about ten minutes of thought. Here is how to do it.
Start from the worst day, not the best
The usual approach is to look at the week, find the emptiest evening and book there. That produces a slot that works until the week fills up.
Work the other way. Ask: which thirty minutes exist on my family's busiest weekday? If the answer is none, the slot you are about to book will probably not survive the term.
Then ask a harder question: which thirty minutes exist on a day when I am not home? If the lesson only works when a particular parent is present, it is fragile. A child who can join a lesson independently has a more durable arrangement than one who cannot.
The three windows that usually work
For school-age children, most workable slots fall into one of three windows.
Straight after school, before anything else. Often the strongest option. The child is still in a working frame of mind, the evening has not been claimed yet, and nothing has had a chance to overrun. The cost is tiredness, so keep these lessons shorter rather than longer.
After dinner, before the wind-down. The most popular and the most contested. It works well when the family eats at a predictable time and badly when dinner drifts. Be honest about which household you are.
Early morning, before school. Rarely considered, and it can suit older children. Nothing has happened yet to disrupt it and the lesson is finished before the day begins. The obvious cost is an earlier start, so it only makes sense for families who are already early risers.
The window to avoid: late evening, after a long day, when the child is already tired. The lesson happens, little is retained, and the child learns to associate Quran with being tired. Two good lessons a week are better than four exhausted ones.
Working out the time difference with Pakistan
Our teachers are in Karachi, which is UTC+5 all year. Pakistan does not use daylight saving time, so your time difference from Karachi changes twice a year even though nothing changes in Karachi.
| Your location | On standard (winter) time | On daylight saving time |
|---|---|---|
| UK and Ireland | 5 hours behind Karachi | 4 hours behind |
| Central Europe | 4 hours behind | 3 hours behind |
| UAE and Oman | 1 hour behind (no change all year) | 1 hour behind |
| Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain | 2 hours behind (no change all year) | 2 hours behind |
| US East Coast | 10 hours behind | 9 hours behind |
| US West Coast | 13 hours behind | 12 hours behind |
| Sydney, Australia | 5 hours ahead of Karachi | 6 hours ahead |
Daylight saving starts and ends on different dates in different regions, and in the southern hemisphere it runs from October to April. Always check the exact dates around a clock change.
What this means in practice. A UK family booking 6pm their time is booking 11pm in Karachi in winter and 10pm in summer. A family in the UAE booking 6pm is booking 7pm in Karachi. A US East Coast family booking 5pm on standard time is booking 3am in Karachi.
Our tutors are available at any time of day, so a late or early hour in Karachi is not a barrier. It is still worth knowing what your slot is in Karachi time, so there is no confusion about the hour on either side.
The clock changes will catch you out
This is the most overlooked thing in international online lessons, and it can cost a family a missed lesson twice a year.
The UK, Europe, North America and Australia all change their clocks. Pakistan does not. So your lesson time relative to your teacher shifts twice a year, even though your own clock still reads the same.
The dates do not line up either. The UK and Europe change in late March and late October. North America changes in March and November, on different dates. Australia changes in the opposite direction, in April and October.
What to do: put two reminders in your phone now, one for your spring change and one for your autumn change, each saying "confirm Quran lesson time". Message your teacher the week before. One message can save two missed lessons a year.
Building a schedule that survives the year
Four things to check before you commit to a slot.
Does it survive the term? Look at the school calendar. If your chosen evening has a recurring activity for half the year, choose another.
Does it survive Ramadan? Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin on 8 February 2027, subject to the sighting of the moon (dates and a daily plan are in the Ramadan 2027 Quran plan). In February the sun sets in the late afternoon in the UK and Europe, so Iftar is early and the evening rearranges itself. Ask yourself now whether your slot falls before or after Iftar, and whether it needs to move for the month.
Does it survive school holidays? Holidays are usually more of an opportunity than a problem, with more time and fewer constraints. Decide in advance whether you pause, keep the same slot or add a lesson. A long pause over the summer is a common way for progress to be lost.
Does it survive travel? If you travel for a few weeks, your time difference changes. Tell the teacher the dates in advance and agree what happens.
Two or five lessons a week?
For most families, two lessons a week is a sensible start. Two lessons kept up for a long time do more for a child than five that stop after a few months. Three or four can suit Hifz students, adults with a deadline, or a child who needs to catch up.
Our fees follow the number of classes: £15 a month for two classes a week, £23 for three, £30 for four and £40 for five, the same on every course. There is no registration fee. The fees page also shows dollar, dirham and rupee prices.
Three example schedules
These are worked examples, not real families, to show how the arithmetic and the reasoning fit together.
A UK household with two children aged 7 and 10, and two working parents. Lessons at 4:45pm on Tuesday and Thursday, straight after school, one child after the other with the younger one first while energy is highest. In Karachi that is 9:45pm in winter and 8:45pm in summer.
Why this can hold: it is before dinner, so it does not collide with the evening, and with the two lessons back to back one disruption affects one evening rather than two.
A UAE household with one child aged 12 learning Hifz. Lessons at 5pm, four days a week. That is 6pm in Karachi all year, because neither the UAE nor Pakistan changes its clocks.
Why this can hold: Hifz needs frequency, and there is no clock change to catch the family out.
A Canadian household with an adult learner starting from scratch. Lessons at 7am on Saturday and Sunday. In Karachi that is 5pm in winter and 4pm in summer.
Why this can hold: weekday evenings in North America are the small hours in Karachi. That can still be arranged, but weekend mornings are an easy pattern for an adult with a full working week to keep.
The pattern across all three: a slot lasts when it fits the family's worst day and survives the clock changes.
Keep the same teacher and the same time
Consistency matters. A teacher who sees your child at the same time every week knows what was covered, what is weak and what was promised. If the teacher changes, some of every lesson goes on rediscovering the child's level.
So when you ask any academy about a slot, ask two questions: "Will this be the same teacher every week?" and "Is this slot held for us, or booked each week?" If the answer to either is unclear, that tells you something about how the academy is run. If the teacher is part of the question, see how to choose a male or female Quran tutor.
A short checklist before you book
- Does this time exist on my busiest weekday?
- Can my child join it without me if necessary?
- What is this time in Karachi, and what happens to it when the clocks change?
- What happens to it in Ramadan?
- Is it the same teacher every week?
- Is this number of lessons one we can keep up in energy, not just money, in a year's time?
If you can answer all six, the slot will probably hold. If you have not had a class yet, read what happens in a free online Quran trial class first.
We teach families across the UK, Europe, the Gulf, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa, in the family's own time zone, from £15 a month. Book a free trial class and tell us your busiest weekday and the times that suit you.