Educating ‘Bangsamoro’
IN the observance of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, every Filipino needs to value the Muslims as co-creators of the Philippine identity and society — history, culture and tradition. While Muslims constitute only 6.9 percent of the Philippine population, our history is anchored on the fact that these brothers and sisters contribute to who we are as Filipinos and what we are as a nation.
In 2018, after decades of conflicts, peace negotiations finally concluded with the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), approved through the 2019 autonomy plebiscite, which is envisioned to have greater autonomy, more resources and larger territory than its predecessor.
But the autonomous government is facing challenges. The BARMM in 2021 had a poverty incidence among population of 37.2 percent (National Economic Development Authority) and 39.4 percent among families (PSA).
If indeed education is a great equalizer, with a key role in building communities, we have to understand and capitalize on education in the Bangsamoro autonomous region. In the BARMM context, education is not only an institution that trains its citizens for practical functions. Education has a humanistic task of shaping its people’s sense-making on social issues, history and identity, and skills to be functioning members of society and eventually contribute to the welfare of the community.
Education crisis in BARMM
The Bangsamoro Organic Law strongly advocates for a development of “educational framework relevant and responsive to the needs, ideals and aspirations of the Bangsamoro people.” And the hope is in education — the right education.
BARMM has faced serious challenges in both access and quality of basic education. The functional literacy rate is lowest in the region at 71.6 percent (PSA). Based on the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund 2019 report, at least 213 barangay (villages) in the BARMM do not have access to any learning facility. This problem is affecting over 45,000 primary school aged children, according to the report.
The Bangsamoro region lagged behind several regions in terms of access to education. The BARMM has significantly lower enrollment rate than the rest of the country. About 48.5 percent of Indigenous children in BARMM attend elementary school but only 11.2 percent complete basic education. For every 100 children who enrolled in Grade 1 in school year (SY) 2010-2011, only 17 were able to graduate Grade 12 in 2021-2022 — three times less than the national average (DepEd). According to the World Bank in 2019, while almost all Filipino children start elementary school at age six, only 70 percent start school on time in BARMM.
If only one out of every 10 students who began primary education completes junior high school on time, out-of-school youth and adults (OSYA) have thus accumulated over the generations. The share of OSYA in BARMM is double the national average.
The Alternative Learning System (ALS) has been operated by the Department of Education (DepEd) offering second-chance learning programs for the past few decades throughout the country for OSYA who have limited skills and bleak employment prospects. The World Bank findings show significant and positive impacts on labor market outcomes among ALS learners who could pass the exam. The delivery of ALS needs to be strengthened for greater productivity. The potential is in technical vocational training, which has the potential to optimize the human resource asset of the region.
Poverty of educational materials
The Policy Research and Legal Services noted the scarcity in relevant materials that embody the unique Bangsamoro experience and worldview. Learning materials that explore the Bangsamoro conditions could elicit the students’ meaningful understanding of the region’s social, historical and cultural setting.
Difficulty in technological and internet access aggravate the lack of textbooks. To be able to access ample collections of references, students and teachers need hours of travel to main cities that have libraries.
The students in BARMM have no option but to use Manila-centric school materials, which rarely reflect their experiences and cultural needs. Content analysis of the books issued shows that Muslim Filipino or Muslims and their history, culture and contributions to Philippine history are largely absent from the selective tradition in most Philippine textbooks.
Knowledge that is not reflective of the needs and values of the community cannot be a ground for well-informed decisions — a foundation to shape the fate of the individual and the nation, and more importantly, it could not enrich the understanding and value of Bangsamoro identity. Learning materials dominated by foreign experiences can be a source of “othering” contrary to the goal of education, which is to empower its citizens.
If one’s aim is to address the various forms of injustices recorded in history, the humanistic role of education should not be neglected in the Bangsamoro. The Bangsamoro must understand themselves, and without this humanistic sense, self-determination could not be fully realized. The goal is to promote multiculturalism and go against the materials dominated by a single world view.
There is a need to support the production of educational materials tailored to the needs of Bangsamoro society. Government must construct more libraries and strengthen of the digital space where learning resources may be accessed both by the educators and the learners.
The wealth of Mindanao
BARMM must educate for its strength. The Bangsamoro region, despite some challenges, boasts a rich landscape of economic opportunities. There are promising sectors where investment in education may need to concentrate in producing wealth for the richly blessed region using its greatest gift — people and nature.
The Bangsamoro region rests on vast fertile land and is endowed with rich aquamarine resources that can be capitalized for agriculture and fisheries. It is already a food basket as a major producer of crops like fruits, vegetables and cash crops such as pineapples, bananas and coconuts. Mindanao’s rich fisheries sector offers opportunities in fish production, seaweed farming and aquaculture. Both opportunities require technology, academictechnical and government support.
The BARMM holds significant deposits of valuable minerals, opening possibilities for responsible and sustainable mining, and equitable processing. These metallic minerals richly available include gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, chromium and manganese, and nonmetallic include sand, gravel, limestone, clay and marble. There should be overemphasis that such mining should never damage nature.
The rich human resource must prompt government to invest in infrastructure that creates a more attractive environment for manufacturing businesses. BARMM has immense potential for renewable energy generation, including hydro, geothermal, wind and solar power. This can attract investments in clean energy production, which the region may potentially champion.
In spite of the security concerns, there are stunning beaches, mountains and rainforests that offer opportunities for tourism development, particularly ecotourism and cultural tourism. Initially, local tourists may be attracted then as peace and order situation is proven under control, the world becomes a market.
By addressing the challenges and educating people based on its strengths, the Bangsamoro region can become a major driver of growth for the entire Philippines, and a proof of concept that federalism and parliamentary form of government may work, inshallah.