Today in Paris, the Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, met Mr. Ludger Schuknecht, Deputy Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and together they agreed to launch Joint workshops and Seminars between ISESCO and OECD over the period 2020-2021.

During the meeting, which is part of ISESCO Director General’s current visit to France to attend the 40^th General Conference of UNESCO, the two parties agreed on signing a cooperation agreement next year, and they stressed the need to sustain joint action between ISESCO and the OECD, encourage investment in the various fields of education, ensure gender equality in educational opportunities, and facilitate the integration of migrants through specialized educational programmes.

The first workshop to be held at ISESCO headquarters in Rabat during the first quarter of 2020 to develop ISESCO’s future work programmes so as to promote its support to Member States in reforming the educational curricula. ISESCO aims through this workshop to develop high-quality work programmes based on good international research works and expertise while the OECD seeks to involve a larger number of countries in the OECD Education 2030 Project.

Another workshop to be held in one of ISESCO Member States during the third quarter of 2020, aims to improve the quality and use of national data in the field of education as the OECD has a considerable experience in this field through the development of indicators, data collection methodologies, policies and strategies likely to help transfer such expertise to ISESCO Member States.

The third activity focuses on reviewing the national educational policies of ISESCO Member States over the period 2020-2021. Many of ISESCO Member States participate in the data collection with the OECD, but their use of such data in developing their own national educational policies is very limited. Thus, this workshop is very important to benefit from the OECD 20-year long experience in drawing education policies.

Through the fourth activity, to be implemented over the period 2020-2021, the work programme aims to exchange knowledge. ISESCO will provide its Member States with a greater interaction and an ample knowledge of the research works, data and analyses of the OECD so as to boost the efforts of education reform through various practical means.

It is worth mentioning that the OECD is an international organization established in 1961 to replace the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC), established in 1948 to help managing Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II. It aims to achieve economic development and refresh trade exchange.