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COTABATO CITY — The Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), through its Property and Supply Section (PASS), began Thursday, March 30, the series of distribution of office supplies and equipment for the Islamic Studies and Arabic Language (ISAL) teachers-asaatidz in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
According to Director General for Madaris Education Prof. Tahir Nalg, this is the first time in Bangsamoro History that ISAL (formerly ALIVE) teachers have been provided with such supplies.
The first leg of distribution took place at Cotabato City Schools Division Office (SDO) where 260 ISAL teachers each received the following: a) clerical table and chair with 4-drawer steel cabinet, b) water dispenser, c) trash bin, and d) reference materials.
Education Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal said that initiatives like this is worth sharing and publicizing especially when it benefits the Bangsamoro community. The distribution will be until April 4, including weekends.
Cotabato City Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Concepcion F. Balawag extended her gratitude to the MBHTE for the provision of these supplies.
“We will sustain the efforts of the [Bangsamoro] Government to attain lasting peace in Mindanao,” Balawag added.
The MBHTE PASS is expected to continue the distribution to other schools divisions and all other ISAL teachers-asaatidz are expected to receive the same.
BARMM’s Education Ministry has its workout cut out for it, what with scores of hard to reach communities in the region, far off islands, among others.
The Bangsamoro region, established in 2018 by the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao (now split as Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte), Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan, and Marawi, as well as the 63 barangays or villages dubbed Special Geographic Area (SGA) that voted “yes” in a plebiscite in February 2019 to be under the BARMM jurisdiction.
According to the Philippine Atlas has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities: Basilan, 11 municipalities; Lanao del Sur, 39; Maguindanao, 36; Sulu, 19; and Tawi-Tawi, 11. Its component cities are Cotabato (the regional center and capital) in Maguindanao; Lamitan in Basilan; and Marawi in Lanao del Sur. (✓)