Featured image above shows BARMM -MBHTE teachers who visited and trained in Quezon City, Metro Manila, to enhance their professional proficiency. (Credit: MBHTE)
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COTABATO CITY — Prioritizing inclusive education in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has been a key priority of the Bangsamoro Government for many years. The Bangsamoro Education Code (BEC) states that building the capacity of teachers is critical to ensuring all have access to quality, accessible, and inclusive education.
To this end, a group of 17 teachers from BARMM visited Jose Abad Santos Memorial School (JASMS) in Quezon City, Metro Manila, this week to learn about the variety of approaches to support the different interests and needs of learners. This was part of a comprehensive five-day training and professional development workshop, supported by the Australian Government.
Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) Director General for Basic Education Abdullah Salik, Jr. says:
“Education is a fundamental right of every learner in the BARMM. For this reason, the Ministry shall continue to drive forward the BARMM Inclusive Schools Approach and strengthen quality teaching and learning to increase engagement in classrooms and support the lives and wellbeing of Bangsamoro youth.”
“We commend the ongoing support of Australia in strengthening inclusive education, which contributes to peacebuilding in the region.”
Providing opportunities for teachers and the wider education ecosystem to strengthen inclusive education is crucial now. According to an Australian supported study, students faced three to four years of learning loss during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study also found exclusion as a significant barrier to children’s learning, exacerbated by factors such as poverty, the distance of the school from home, parent’s attitudes toward schooling, armed conflict, bullying and discrimination.
Thanh Le, Development Counsellor of the Australian Embassy in the Philippines, says:
“Australia recognises education’s essential role in attaining economic prosperity and social stability. We are proud to be supporting the delivery of quality education to Filipino children, including support for teacher education and professional development.”
“Providing teachers with the knowledge they need to bring inclusive practices into the classroom will help to ensure that all children, including the most marginalized and disadvantaged, can access quality education.”
Inclusive schools’ approach
The teachers were trained to engage in collaborative learning sessions to solve shared challenges encountered in the school, and effectively plan lessons that cater to a wide spectrum of learning styles and abilities.
They also learned methods to remove barriers to learning, such as providing multiple options for students to demonstrate their learning or providing learners more than one way to interact with materials.
Play based strategies
The training also highlighted the importance of play based learning.
“Play is critical for children. We’ve seen first-hand in BARMM how play reduces discrimination by fostering understanding and empathy among children from diverse backgrounds,” says Jerome Zayas, Pathways Inclusion Adviser.
“In partnership with the BARMM Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, we are scaling up approaches to play, resources and learning, and improving the quality, effectiveness and management of K-3 teachers.”
Access to education information
As part of the Bangsamoro Government’s drive to inclusive education, they have recently launched the Bangsamoro Education Management Information System (BEMIS). An Australian Government-supported initiative, BEMIS is an online system that records information on all learners in the Bangsamoro region, including out-of-school youth, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups. Through BEMIS, the local government can make informed decisions to improve policies and programs on education, especially for those who need them the most.
Launched late last year, Australia is also helping provide schools access to BEMIS to ensure teachers have the information and evidence to support all their students.
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. With the recent plebiscite at SGA, the BARMM now has eight new municipalities as residents voted “Yes”.
According to the Philippine Atlas BARMM has 4,404,288 people. It has 116 municipalities (plus eight newly established under the SGA: 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. (✓)