The Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, and Mr. Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organization for Economic, Cooperation and Development (OECD), explored ways to promote cooperation and joint action between ISESCO and the OECD.

During a working lunch in Paris, Dr. AlMalik and Mr. Schleicher explored ways of bolstering ties between the two organizations, through mutually agreed action programmes provided for in the cooperation agreement, which will be signed between ISESCO and the OECD by mid next year.

Moreover, the two parties agreed on the participation of the OECD in the Islamic Conference of Ministers of Education, due to be held in 2020, to present a forward-looking vision on education in Islamic countries.

It is worth mentioning that ISESCO and the OECD have finally agreed to organize a number of joint workshops and symposia in 2020 and 2021, in the field of the reform of school curricula; improvement of national educational data quality in ISESCO Member States and their optimization; and provision for assistance in educational policy development.

By the same token, ISESCO and OECD agreed to knowledge sharing, whereby ISESCO will allow Member States a larger interaction and wider access to the OECD’s research, data, and analyses likely to boost the endeavors of education reform, through various practical means.