Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-BVb
COTABATO CITY (SDN) — Lack of enough classrooms across the country is on the most urgent needs of schools across the country. Thus, more buildings are needed to satisfy students’ need for a comfortable and conducive environment.
The lack of classrooms is also being felt in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), which was established in January 2019.
And this lack of classrooms is being addressed by the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), one of the BARMM’s 15 primary organs of governance. Minister Mohagher M. Iqbal heads the MBHTE as education minister.
In fact, the MBHTE has been addressing this need, along with various other education-related reforms Iqbal has been implementing in the region.
This month, the Ministry’s Education Facilities Section (MBHTE-EFS) conducted another series of groundbreaking ceremonies for different school building projects amounting to 𝐏𝟏𝟗,𝟏𝟔𝟑,𝟔𝟕𝟖.𝟗𝟐 at the divisions of Basilan, Cotabato City, and Maguindanao del Sur.
Under the 2022 Transitional Development Impact Fund (TDIF), a 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 and 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐲𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 will be constructed at Port Holland Elementary School (PHES) and Damabalas Elementary School (DES), respectively.
Another project to be subsidized under the 2023 General Appropriations Act of the Bangsamoro (GAAB), is a 2-storey with 6-classroom school building project which will be constructed at Cotabato City National High School (CCNHS)-Annex PC Hill Site.
Among other reforms, the MBHTE has also been renovating schools, distributing MBHTE-designed armchairs, IT equipment, Teachers’ Kits, Learners’ Kits, school supplies, and 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 del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi, the cities of Cotabato, Lamitan and Marawi, as well as the Special Geographic Area’s (SGA) 63 barangays or villages 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; undivided 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. — EKU (✓)