Teachers' training center to push peace curriculum

COTABATO CITY , Philippines  – Representatives of foreign donors recently launched in Maguindanao a regional training center for teachers’ education which will be used as a springboard for a “peace curriculum” meant to promote Muslim-Christian solidarity and address the problem of religious extremism in the troubled South.

Ian D’Arcy Walsh, project director of the Australian-funded Basic Education Assistance to Mindanao (BEAM), and Kevin Corbin of the Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQUALLS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), expressed optimism on fostering peace in Southern Mindanao through education for children in Muslim communities.

Walsh and Corbin, assisted by officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), led the inauguration of the Regional Teachers’ Training Center inside the campus of the Shariff Aguak Central School.

The construction of the building was funded by the World Bank through the ARMM Social Fund Project (ASFP).

Ustadz Farid Solaiman Adas, chief of the ARMM’s Madaris Education Bureau, which has almost a thousand moderate Islamic missionaries in the autonomous region, said they will utilize the teacher’s training center for the propagation of Islamic values on peace and development, religious solidarity and tolerance, as a means of addressing the nagging security problems in the south.

Walsh, representing the BEAM project of the Australian Agency for International Development, said they will continue their activities in the South, particularly ARMM, despite security problems in the region.

Mayors and governors in the five provinces of ARMM have received a total of P1 billion in infrastructure subsidies earmarked for projects designed to complement the Mindanao peace process through economic empowerment of sectors in areas where there are Muslim secessionist forces.

The grants, drawn from the 2009 infrastructure subsidy of the ARMM, are covered by implementation contracts between the recipient-local officials and ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan.

Information obtained from the office of the ARMM’s public works secretary, Hadji Razul Abpi, showed that of the region’s P1-billion infrastructure subsidy this year, P411.5 million would be spent for projects in Maguindanao; P170 million for Lanao del Sur; P113 million for Basilan; P158 million for Sulu; P108 million for Tawi-Tawi, and P21 million for Marawi City.

Abpi said the bulk of the grants for each province would be spent for roads, bridges, flood control projects and water systems.