Minister of Foreign Affairs: Increase Indonesia-Philippines Islamic Education Cooperation

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi encourages Islamic education cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines.

"I hope that this workshop will produce a recommendation as a basis for creating a memorandum of understanding on Islamic education and in the long term, this collaboration can be a model of further partnership between Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries to promote peace and tolerance," he said when opening Indonesia-Philippines workshop on Islamic education cooperation in Jakarta, Wednesday (14/2/2018).

Retno wants the workshop held until Thursday (15/2/2018) that can generate a roadmap for the two countries to develop the cooperation.

"At the end of this workshop, we will design a 'roadmap' which contains any cooperation that will be undertaken by Indonesia and the Philippines," he said.

Retno conveyed three expectations for the workshop: promoting the true face of Islam to the world, promoting modern and high-quality Islamic education, and ensuring that the collaboration involved all relevant stakeholders including the community.

The workshop consisted of seven sessions namely Islamic education in Indonesia; Islamic education in the Philippines; curriculum system; professional development for teachers, educators and scholars who teach Islamic education; the role of parents, communities, and religious bodies; Islamic education and the development of a culture of tolerance in a multicultural society; and map design for future cooperation.

He says such cooperation can also be developed with other parties.

The workshop was attended by 14 participants from Indonesia and 14 participants from the Philippines representing various institutions and ministries.

From the Philippines, representatives include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and the Institute of Islamic Studies. Then representatives of Indonesia include Ministry of Religious Affairs, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Majelis Ulama Indonesia, Nahdlatul Ulama, and Muhammadiyah.

Retno said the workshop was a real follow-up to the commitment of Indonesia and the Philippines to encourage Islamic education cooperation.

The workshop is also a derivative of a trilateral meeting between Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia on June 22, 2017 in Manila, Philippines.

In the trilateral meeting, there is a joint statement signed by the three countries with Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, one of which is social and economic development including the course of education.

As a follow-up to the joint statement, on January 3, 2018, Retno paid a working visit to Davao, South Philippines, one of its activities to launch Islamic education cooperation between Indonesia and the Philippines. And the workshop became the continuation of the cooperation.

During the visit, Retno also visited Islamic schools and witnessed the signatory of the letter of intent (LoI) to improve cooperation in the field of Islamic education.

"From the discussions we finally agreed to meet again to discuss the concrete cooperation that will be like. Therefore today and tomorrow we do this 'workshop' (workshop)," he said.