The Ministry of Religion is exploring religious education cooperation with the US

Nisar Ali, Secretary General of the Indonesian Ministry of Religion, received an audience from US Cultural Attaché Emily Yasmin Norris.

JAKARTA (Kemenak) — The Ministry of Religion is exploring opportunities to cooperate with the United States in religious education. The discussion took place on Tuesday (7/11/2023) during a meeting between Secretary General of the Ministry of Religion Nisar and Cultural Attaché of the United States Emily Yasmin Norris at the Ministry of Religion office in Jakarta.

During the meeting, Emily, who was accompanied by Alan Feinstein, executive director of the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF), offered cooperation in the field of religious education.

Alan Feinstein said that offering scholarships for master’s and doctoral education is a form of collaboration. “This collaboration is specifically aimed at the religious sector, with religious education under the Ministry of Religion going to the US, with funding from the US government and the Indonesian government,” Allen said.

This was openly welcomed by the Secretary General of the Indonesian Ministry of Religion, Nisar Ali. He thanked for the good projects related to this cooperation. “This is support related to human resource development, especially in preserving the values ​​of religious teachings,” he said.

“I hope this cooperation program will also improve the quality of our higher education. “We are very open about technical matters and then we can discuss and elaborate on this format through a cooperation agreement,” continued Nisar.

Nisar also assessed that Aminef’s call for cooperation with the Ministry of Religion is right on target as there is a large amount of religious education under the Ministry of Religion such as Islamic boarding schools and madrassas. “Going to Kemang is very appropriate because Indonesia has a large number of Islamic boarding schools and we still need support from institutional parties so that students can continue to study English from S1 to S3,” he said.

Nisar said the Ministry of Religion has scholarships for students who want to pursue their education even abroad. However, due to the large amount of education under the Ministry of Religion, this is of course still less realized.

“We already have (the scholarship), but I think it is still not enough, there are about 36 thousand Islamic boarding schools, which is a lot. “That is why we openly accept this invitation to cooperate,” he concluded.