ARMM conducts ‘Lakbay Edukasyon’ for school and barangay officials

COTABATO CITY Teachers, school heads and barangay captains in five municipalities in the provinces of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi visited Maribulan Elementary School, one of top performing schools in Sarangani province, for a study tour dubbed ‘Lakbay Edukasyon’.

This year’s study tour delegation comprises 160 teachers and school heads and 40 barangay captains from the towns of Simunul, Sitangkai, and Bongao in Tawi-Tawi as well as from the towns of Indanan and Patikul in Sulu.

Alfhadar Pajiji, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Education department (DepEd-ARMM) assistant secretary for special projects, said this is the first batch of Lakbay Edukasyon study tour this year.

He described the study tour as an educational trip that provides opportunities for exposure visits and learning the host school’s best practices, specifically programs, projects and interventions the participants could replicate in their own areas.

Maribulan Elementary School is implementing best practices within its system among public schools in Region 12, or Central Mindanao.

After the study tour in Sarangani, the participants will proceed to ACES Natural Farming Institute in Panabo City, Davao del Norte. The Panabo City tour is aimed at educating the participants on the importance of organic farming as well as exploring the possibility of applying such farming techniques in their respective communities.

“This is the first time we experienced this kind of program and after the study tour, we will surely adopt what we learned in our locality,” said Hja. Darwisa Kadil Sakiran, barangay captain of Barangay Tagbak in Indanan, Sulu.

ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman said the program will help improve the quality education in the region. “We want all the school divisions and barangay captains in the different provinces in the ARMM to experience this program because this will help them a lot,” Gov. Hataman said.

In 2015, DepEdARMM also conducted a similar study tour involving district supervisors, school heads and barangay captains in the province of Basilan.

The second batch of this year’s Lakbay Edukasyon, which will have officials of other barangays and school divisions in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu as participants, is scheduled on April 25-28.