MUHAMMADIYAH.ID, JAKARTA - To enhance quality of education, representatives of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the Philippines did a comparative study visit to Office of the Central Board of Muhammadiyah, Jakarta on Friday (21/6).
Welcomed by Office of Primary and Secondary Education of the Central Board of Muhammadiyah, the representatives were university members, religious figures, and policy makers.
At the comparative study, a Muhammadiyah party presented Muhammadiyah’s roles in improving people’s quality through education, and educational development, application, and management.
“Muhammadiyah has fascinated them since Muhammadiyah education integrates a curriculum and moderate attitudes. They would like to apply the concept in Moro. This is good news for Muhammadiyah and we wish that we can provide our entire support,” declared Secretary of Muhammadiyah LHKI Wachid Ridwan.
Wachid informed that the meeting was a follow-up of a previous meeting with Ministry of Education from Bangsamoro in Kuala Lumpur.
“In Kuala Lumpur, they told us that they entail our assistance to fuse a religious and state curriculum, particularly for primary and secondary education. We offer them Ismuba (Islam, Muhammadiyah, and the Arabic Language),” mentioned Wachid.
On 22 May 2019, Interim Chief Minister of Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao sent a letter to Directorate General of Islamic Education of Ministry of Religion of the Republic o Indonesia. The letter mentioned that the visit was addressed to learn Islamic education in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Bangsamoro Ismail Abdullah conveyed that the visit aimed to learn educational management of Islamic schools in Indonesia.
“In the Philippines, we only have a private school. There is not any public school. The curriculum is secular. We recognize that Muhammadiyah is a huge movement so that we would like to learn how this Islamic movement can go hand in hand with government. Indeed, government of Indonesia bolsters Islamic schools, so does our government,” asserted Ismail.
Besides performing the comparative study visit, representatives of the Philippines required Muhammadiyah to initiate Indonesian language teaching in the Philippines since Filipinos cannot speak Malay nor Indonesian even though they are Malays.
“We are glad that we can share experiences. In fact, Muhammadiyah is a part of International Context Group assisting Moro to achieve its independence entirely in 2020,” maintained Wahid.