Cotabato City—The Bangsamoro Government announced it is allocating P10 million for a free Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) review for educators in the region.
This is part of the P19 billion allocated to the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), as the biggest slice of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) 2020 P65-billion Regional Expenditure Program (REP).
The total amount is earmarked for the ministry’s administrative and operational budget and support funds, as the BARMM pledges to invest much on developing human capital through basic, tertiary, and technical education, Education Minister Mohaguer Iqbal said.
The MBHTE has divided into six batches applicants and new graduates aspiring for the teachers’ license but could neither attend review classes nor take the LET because of extreme economic pressure in areas affected most by incidents of armed conflict and evacuation.
“While we are preoccupied with the demands of the transition phase in the Bangsamoro Homeland, we are also caught off-guard by new rules implemented in our respective communities, ministries, and offices, due to the coronavirus pandemic,” BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Balawag Al Hadj Murad Ebrahim said.
“Despite all these, here we are poised and ready to build the future of our region by improving the Education initiatives through the MBHTE’s Flagship Programs. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God),” Ebrahim said.
Ebrahim said the Moro people should take a cue from Malaysia’s experience.
“Days after their independence, education became their development priority, and we see how Malaysia has progressed and in less than 50 years, they are already in a very stable situation,” he said.
The region’s education ministry has designed AKAP—Abot-Kaalaman sa Pamilyang (AKAP) Bangsamoro—“to deliver appropriate education to children, especially on early years education or K-3 in the unserved barangays.”
This is done in partnership with local government units (LGUs), BARMM agencies, the private sector, and civil society organizations to respond to lack of basic services in unserved barangays; and engage parents, local leaders to help formulate solutions to problems concerning education, as well as to initiate and implement educational reforms, Ebrahim said.
AKAP is seen to help deliver education-related services and help design appropriate curricula for BARMM communities.
“This includes constriction of learning centers or schools; formulation and distribution of learning materials; integration of support and resources from the LGUs and other stakeholders; conduct of values transformation training for parents, teachers and in communities; training of local community facilitators or teachers,” he said.
Iqbal said the region’s educational framework aims to simplify an “efficient mode of teaching and to give importance to both visual and audio-visual aids, the MBHTE has distributed instructional materials to stimulate learning in various schools in the BARMM.”
He said designs of early or basic education for Moro children amid the COVID-19 pandemic “simplify efficient mode of teaching and to give importance to both visual and audio-visual aids.”
Iqbal said the MBHTE has already distributed instructional materials to stimulate learning in various schools in the BARMM.
He said the region’s basic education design also “provides for a balanced education that fosters and nurtures the total personality of the Bangsamoro children with firm grounding in Islamic tenets and values.”