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Crown Prince Receives Philippine Envoy Yano
dddHis Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office, yesterday consented to receive in audience (photo at left) the outgoing Ambassador Extraordinary and. Plenipotentiary of the Republic of the Philippines to Brunei Darussalam, Mr Alexander B. Yano.

Mr Yano has been ambassador here since Aug 6, 2009. The audience took place at Istana Nurul Iman.--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
 
HRH Crown Prince grants audience to outgoing Philippine envoy

Untitled-5Bidding farewell: His Royal Highness Prince Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah (C), the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister's Office and Her Royal Highness Pengiran Anak Isteri Pengiran Anak Sarah (R) yesterday granted a farewell audience to outgoing Philippines Ambassador Virginia H Benavidez (L), who has been serving in Brunei for nearly seven years. Picture: Infofoto

 

The Brunei Times
 
Philippines delegates visit religious school
Bandar Seri Begawan - A total of 24 delegates from the Philippines' office of the undersecretary for Muslim Affairs at the Education Department held a dialogue with Ministry of Religious Affairs officers to learn best practices of religious education.

Untitled-4The delegates yesterday conducted a working visit to the Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Damit Arabic Religious Secondary School for Girls (SUAMRIPAD).
Manaros B Boransing, undersecretary for Muslim Affairs from the Philippines' Education Department said that their visit to Brunei was to ensure that they benchmark standards in Madrasah's (Religious School) education so that it is comparable with other practices in the region.

"We started with Brunei and our ideal mission here is to benchmark, we like to look to Brunei and other countries such as Indonesia as being strong Muslim countries and to see the way Brunei handles Madrasah and gain its knowledge," he said.

There are over 300 million Muslims and such visits are important to promote cooperation in the region, as well as the start of many study visits to come.

He also enlightened other participants on the history of Madrasah education in the Philippines and how there are plans to incorporate the system into the mainstream curriculum.

The undersecretary added that his country is home to millions of Muslims and they have already begun to include Madrasah as part of the curriculum.

"Right now we have implemented the Madrasah Education to be incorporated in schools in all 17 regions in the Philippines," he said.

The working visit also saw a presentation from the Ministry of Islamic Religious Affairs and Acting Deputy Principal of SUAMRIPAD Hjh Norlina Hj Untung.

The first part of the presentation explained the history and structure of the organisation, including the curriculum and syllabus, how many years it takes for a student to complete their studies in religious schools and the type of activities included to ensure that it was in line with the ministry's vision to produce students who were well-rounded.

The religious affairs officer said that there was an increase of religious students since its introduction into the education system in 1956.

"In the beginning, there were only 347 students, the figures in 2009 show that there are now 40,807 students," he said.

Hjh Norlina spoke on the teachers' responsibilities, implementation of the National Education System for the 21st Century (SPN21) in the curriculum, along with the school's aims and objectives.

Present to receive the head of delegation and Undersecretary For Muslim Affairs was Assistant Director of the Department of Islamic Studies Hjh Fatimah Hj Abd Ghani. (SHR1)

The Brunei Times