Luistro inspects Maguindanao schools

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines – Education Secretary Armin Luistro on Monday toured school campuses in isolated areas in Maguindanao to personally inspect the condition of public schools and assess the condition of the area’s Muslim and Christian elementary pupils.

Luistro was accompanied in his inspection by lawyer Jamar Kulayan, regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

Luistro and Kulayan both assured teachers in Barangays Timanan and Sante Fe in South Upi town that they will exhaust all means of addressing lack of school buildings and other facilities, which affects the services of the Education Department.

Kulayan told teachers in the schools Luistro visited, along with David Duttom, deputy mission officer of the Australian embassy, that the ARMM administration already accomplished almost 100 percent its school building rehabilitation and construction targets.

“We are also grateful of the support of the Australian government to our education thrusts,” Kulayan said.

Kulayan said Australia has earmarked about P4 billion worth of funds for the advancement of the quality of education in the autonomous region via the Basic Education Assistance to Mindanao (BEAM) program.

Kulayan had told reporters the intervention being initiated by Australia is a big vote of confidence for the administration of incumbent ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

The ARMM government just enlisted more than a thousand regular teachers for public schools scattered across the region,  after Kulayan and Hataman had removed hundreds of ghost teachers- in a cleansing process they jointly started in early 2012- from the anomalous payrolls of the regional education department, which proliferated during the time of the previous administrations. 

Kulayan said the BEAM program helped facilitate the recent rehabilitation of several schools in isolated areas in ARMM, which covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Luistro said one major concern of his office is how to ensure adequate supply of textbooks for school children.

Functions and powers of the Department of Education have fully been devolved to ARMM as early as 1991 based on the region’s first charter, Republic Act, 6734, which originally covered only four provinces- Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Basilan and the cities of Marawi and Lamitan were added into the ARMM’s territory via another plebiscite in August of 2001, which resulted to the ratification of the ARMM’s amended charter, Republic Act 9054.

Luistro said the welfare of school children in the autonomous region, which is home to Moro, non-Moro indigenous highland and Christian communities is a major concern for the national government.