| Islamic education in the Philippines has assumed many forms, each serving a particular need or purpose. The Philippines’ Madrasah Education Program (MEP) under the Department of Education (DepEd) is implemented in public schools to chiefly resolve what the government perceives as the educational dichotomy between state schooling and the madrasah system in Muslim communities, which is assumed to have disadvantaged Muslim learners. The madrasah in an ever-expanding number of Muslim communities, is a continuing initiative to educate constituents on Islam and produce practicing Muslims and strong believers who would uphold the faith across generations. Integrated schools established by private Muslim individuals and institutions strive to strengthen connections between madaris (plural of madrasah) and Philippine education by mainstreaming students to the latter while ensuring that they are equally educated in the former. The three forms mentioned above were the focus of the UP CIDS-Islamic Studies Program project, “Issues in Muslim Education.” The project aimed to continually dialogue with stakeholders in these schools to determine salient issues they encountered in their respective institutions. It also sought to address needed soft skills or capacities that would enable stakeholders to better address these issues. The project team relied on stakeholder information and some professional judgment to design capacity-building interventions for them. The project proceeded at a micro-scale, working with a limited number of stakeholders at the school level. The underpinning philosophy here was that there was greater facility for interventions to be carried out while their impacts were more easily observable within shorter time periods. Overall, identified issues could be classified under the overarching concepts of curriculum and understanding learner behaviors. |