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By EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
ZAMBOANGA CITY (SDN) — Many schools in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the past had been starved of school buildings/classrooms, teachers, equipment to aid teaching, armchairs, and school supplies, including the adoption of technology. Just to name a few.
That was before the establishment in 2019 of the Bangsamoro region through the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to implement the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).
The CAB came into being after 17 years of peace negotiations between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILG) headed then by its founder and chairman, the late Ustadhz Salamat Hashim. Al-Hajj Murad Ebrahim, now the BARMM Chief Minister, replaced Hashim, 64, after he passed away on July 13, 2003, in Butig, Lanao del Sur.
Negotiations between the two peace parties started off in January 1997 through an informal talks held in Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao.
Fighting between government forces and MILF rebels have quieted down largely as a result of the peace accord.
For the absence of armed insurrection, thus, shooting war, buys time for displaced residents of conflict-affected areas to return to their neighborhood, enable them to sort out their lives, pick up the shattered pieces, and re-start whatever livelihood they had before. Or, at least, have a chance to do income-generating activities.
With the establishment of a new political entity (NPE), the people of the region are hopeful of a better Moro governance than the previous 20-year-old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), now defunct and replaced by the BARMM.
Every conflict creates physical violence, as well as psychological violence that is more telling on children. Because children are displaced they are driven away from their school — and their childhood.
It is the task of the MBHTE to bring education to the children of the Bangsamoro, part of the regional government’s avowed goal of bringing BARMM closer to the people.
Mandated to raise the quality of education in the BARMM is the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) headed by Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal.
In relation with this, a delegation of the MBHTE travels to the region’s island provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to deliver and distribute various educational equipment and tools and school supplies.
Iqbal brings with him other high-ranking MBHTE officials such as Director General Abdullah Salik, Jr., Director General Marjuni Maddi, Director General Ruby Andong, Director General Tahir Nalg, BARMM Manila Liaison Office Director Ghafur Kanain, and others for the official activity.
Working on the maxim that “No Bangsamoro Learner Shall Be Left Behind”, especially on education, the MBHTE, one of the primary ministries of the Bangsamoro government, has been implementing a host of education reforms under Iqbal’s leadership.
In doing this, the MBHTE has been constructing school buildings to increase classrooms, hiring additional teachers, providing equipment for the classrooms, school supplies, and other education-related responses.
In 2021 Iqbal revealed MBHTE plans to “apply innovative, context-based, and inclusive policies or mechanisms” to strengthen the Bangsamoro education system’s four sub-sectors through:
- (1) Development of relevant and appropriate curriculum and competency standards;
- (2) Effective use of learning assessment mechanisms;
- (3) The hiring of qualified teachers through a merit-based and legal process;
- (4) Support to the professional development of MBHTE personnel;
- (5) Use of quality textbooks and learning materials; and,
- (6) Raising of standards for school infrastructure, management, and quality assurance, among others.
“We will engage with other education stakeholders, from the regional government down to the local government units, to ensure support for implementing the regional and division educational programs and the school improvement plans,” Iqbal emphasizes, as quoted in a report in bangsamoro.gov.ph.
Following is the complete list of the equipment and tools for distribution pre-selected recipients or beneficiaries:
- Digital Duplicator RISO CV1200 with Pedestal, 17 units
- Stapler with Staple Wire, 17 pieces
- Riso Master, 17 units
- Riso Ink, 17 bottles
- Desktop (All-in-One PC), 442 units
- Television, 2 sets
- Projector, 2 sets
- Digital Duplicator 1-Kyocera, 11 units
- Printer (Epson), 519 units
- Android Tablet, 4,462 units
- Wall Fan, 1,028 units
- Wall Clock, 512 units
- Tumbler, 549 pieces
- Laptop, 140 units
- Water Dispenser, 3 units
- Air Purifier, 3 units
- Flags, 50 pieces
- Chalkboard, 9 pieces
- Weighing Scale, 16 units
- VP Food Packs, 34 pieces
- Teacher’s Kit, 371 sets
- School Supplies Kit (SSK), 200 sets
- Armchairs, 300 units
- Learner’s Kit, 1,177 sets
- Manipulative, 200 pieces
The Bangsamoro region is made up of the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Sur, 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 BARMM 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. (✓)