By Noel Punzalan/ PNA
COTABATO CITY — Education reforms are underway for the Ministry of Education in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
This was stressed by BARMM education minister Mohagher Iqbal during Tuesday’s graduation ceremony of 81 learners in Camp Darapanan, the former main base of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
The former MILF base has transformed into a peace-loving community following the establishment, through a plebiscite, of the new and expanded BARMM earlier this year.
Of the 81 completers, 51 were from Camp Darapanan Integrated School and 30 from the BRAC learning center.
BRAC, which stands for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), is a non-government, Bangladesh-inspired organization focusing on the resolution of illiteracy in poor and strife-torn communities worldwide.
Instituted in 1972, BRAC is currently at work in 10 developing countries, including the BARMM in the Philippines. It receives funding through the Australian Agency for International Development.
Tuesday’s ceremony was also graced by the ambassadors of Australia and Bangladesh.
In his speech during the ceremony, a teary-eyed Iqbal lauded the graduates for pushing through with their education despite hardships in life brought about by the decades-old Moro struggle for self-determination in Mindanao.
“You are fortunate that peace now reigns in Mindanao as many children of former MILF combatants failed to go to school because of the war,” Iqbal said, as he reminisced his days in the MILF revolutionary organization.
“What you have here now is the bounty of peace, which is the mission of the 50-year-old Bangsamoro struggle,” he added.
Iqbal noted that in terms of education, they aspire to produce not only competent graduates “but also finishers with high morale upbringing”.
BRAC has been tapped by the Australian government to implement the Alternative Delivery Model component of the Basic Education Assistance for Muslim Mindanao, which targets at providing children in the remote areas access to education, especially where public education system is inaccessible.
Since 2012, BRAC has been working in Muslim Mindanao areas, establishing 2,108 learning centers including seven floating schools, and reaching to over 60,000 children.
This year, a total of 1,301 BRAC learners completed their elementary education in the region.
The BARMM comprises the provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Basilan; the cities of Lamitan, Marawi, and Cotabato; and 63 villages in North Cotabato province.
