A quick glance at our educational system

One of the hardest task of government is coming up with an educational system that is relevant, people oriented, and fit to the standards of the people it serves. This may look simple, but is actually difficult when implemented. As many of us observe with the new (blended, technical, etc.) system that was put in practice during the COVID pandemic, a lot of loose ends have been missed by those in the Department of Education.

The hardest hit by this innovation is the poor. How can the poor afford the new technology which is “blended” with the traditional method?

The revised K–12 education in the Philippines covers kindergarten and 12 years of basic education to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.

The schooling for this new system is divided into pre-elementary school, primary education also called elementary school, and 6 years secondary education, divided into 4 junior high school and 2 senior high school, or a total of 13 years. Parents complain that instead of the old system of 10 years, they now had to add more years of schooling for the children. This translates into additional expense for education.

The 2 senior high school are called specialization classes, where students choose from four tracks: Academic; Technical-Vocational-Livelihood; Sports; and the Arts and design. The Academic track includes five strands of specializations

• Accountancy and Business Management (ABM)

• Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS)

• Science and Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

• General Academic (GA)

• The new Pre-Baccalaureate Maritime strand which more or less prepares the student for college education. The other three is designed for special interests of students, and should allow them to pursue employment and other expertise without college education.

With such revisions of the system which will approximate that of other countries, this early, its results is already viewed as negative, particularly among the poverty stricken portion of the population. The defects of the old educational system are magnified - lack of teachers, lack of classrooms, lack of learning materials, etc., and the biggest problem that is supposed to be answered by the new system – unemployment. It seems that despite all the preparations and justifications, there remains a mismatch of the supply of educated manpower, with the demand for employment from the industries. Could there be a loophole which the new system was unable to address?

We still have the brain drain (particularly among medical personnel), high drop out rates, and the still gray issue of mismatch between trained graduates and actual jobs.

This is a big challenge for VP Sarah Duterte who chose Dep-ED Secretary as a cabinet post. Hopefully, she will be capable to face the challenge that the past administration of her father started. MC

TheMinistry of Public Order and Safety of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has launched the Bangsamoro Peace Institute in Cotabato City on Saturday, February 4.

The BPI, a program under the MPOS’s Peace Education Division, is designed to bring together peacebuilders in the region to share knowledge, facilitate capacity-building and design community initiatives that will bring about a more peaceful Bangsamoro, according t o a recent press release from the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unification under Presidential Peace Adviser Secretary Carlito Galvez, who is also currently the country’s Secretary of National Defense.

The BPI is supported by the United States Institute of Peace, a national, non-partisan, independent institute founded by the US Congress, carrying out linking research, policy, training, analysis and direct action to support those who are working to build a more peaceful, inclusive world. USIP Vice President Dr. Andrew Wielder noted that the BPI is designed for implementing conflictsensitive and peace-promoting initiatives that are also in line with the BARMM government’s public safety community programming.

He sees the Bangsamoro Peace Institute playing an important role in peacebuilding and said the USIP is very committed to helping in that process. “We will do what we can to help the process here, whether its training or capacity building, research, and analysis,” he added.

Dr. Wielder said peacebuilding requires very hard work and is often not successful. What has given him the most hope of success in the peace process in the Bangsamoro, he said, is the focus on more inclusion.

That peacebuilding is hard work is very true in the case of the Bangsamoro Peace Process. The relative peace currently existing in the Bangsamoro Region and neighboring areas previously affected by the conflict is testament to the power of persistent dialogue and unrelenting resolve in forging a peaceful resolution to decades of conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands.

USIP Visiting Expert Dr. Haroro Ingram correctly views the establishment of the Bangsamoro government as the result of a long and winding journey to peace, the learnings of which should be highlighted through peace education.

Beginning with the peace talks brokered by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi which led to the forging of the Tripoli Agreement in 1976 and the subsequent creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao through Republic Act 6734, and the signing of the Final Peace Agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro National Liberation Front in 1996, there have been various efforts to forge peace between the Philippine government and the Moro Fronts. Then President Fidel V. Ramos reached out to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which was formed out of the MNLF leading to the signing of the Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities between the two parties in July 1997. Joseph Estrada who succeeded Ramos as President in June 1998 suspended the talks with the MILF in 1999 declaring an “all-out war” against the Front. Subsequently, MILF chairman Salamat Hashim declared jihad against Estrada’s administration.

THEMindanao Cross still stands and is firm at 75. Probably, one of the country’s longest running community newspaper and is still the most reliable source of information to obtain and access even for researchers of high education program of many diverse fields of expertise here and abroad. Yet, The Little Paper with a Big Cause remains as lay as ever in its style and presentation of news reports, as well as feature and OpEd articles. In this day and age of stiff competition with otherwise easilt accessed social media, it’s about time the MC management start developing a component research institute.

Many in conflict management believe that sports offer an almost perfect venue, a vast platform of friendly, cordial engagement among the youth and the adults, is a deterrent to most ills of the society—drugs just being one of them.

The contemporary Bangsamoro people are avid followers of the NBA basketball seasons series, and are in fact, good fans of its internationally renowned teams and famous players.

In boxing, however, trainers are not keen on handling a Moro youth into the raring of the punching arena. This is because potential sparring partners would evade being paired with a Moro trainee lest he gets hurt and might “get back” at them somewhere outside the boxing ropes. But they say this was a myth, an unfounded fear.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo revived the negotiations following her assumption as President in 2001. Various challenges rocked the peace process – the Zamboanga Siege, the violence that followed the junking of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, or MOA-AD – but the peace panels of both the government and the MILF, egged on and supported by both national and local peace advocates along with the Church and civil society persisted and patiently trudged on until the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro was forged and finally signed in Manila on March 27, 2014 paving the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao through the Bangsamoro Organic Law.

There are a lot to learn from the Bangsamoro Peace Process that truly need to be institutionalized and popularized if peace is to be effectively forged in this country for it to have sustainable economic progress and prosperity: dialogue and negotiations work, persistent and unwavering commitment to peace is needed, the involvement of the community in forging peace is necessary to mention just a few.

Mindanao Cross still indisputable source of information for high learners

Nash B. Maulana

nash.penlight@gmail.com performance.

Neighbors of the Manays recall the boy as a softspoken, respectful, and had not been into any instance of shouting match with any other person, just as he was too conscious with foul moves and physical contact with his fellow players in basketball games he played.

Maguindanao had shone not once but at least thrice in Philippine Sports History. Kigay Cayugan, originally from Buluan and later, Datu Piang, sent his opponent off the ropes in one boxing match in Cagayan de Oro City in the late 1950’s. In the boxing arena, Bapa Kigay was not called “Kid Moro” or “Kidlat Moro” for nothing. But somewhere along his career path, he fell victim of alleged “game fixing,” according to one sportswriter in a 1981 article on a Philippine Sports Magazine.

COTABATO CITY / ARMM CORRESPONDENTS

John M. Unson, Ferdinandh B. Cabrera, Charlie C. Señase

Nash B. Maulana NORTH / SOUTH COTABATO CORRESPONDENTS

Williamor Magbanua, Romer “Bong” Sarmiento, Roel Osano & Drema Quitayen Bravo CARTOONIST Lourd Jim Diazon

Two weeks ago, a young basketball player in Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur was forced into his borrowed motorcycle, abducted at gunpoint while buying fish at an alternative market and was commandeered to interior Barangay Lintukan where he was shot dead.

Norhan Layang Manay was the silent type of a young man, who drove his brother’s motorcycle to earn for his family, working for a makeshift market vendor of garments, just as he would have been a father soon-to-be to his first born (but) one he would never get to see nor caress even for a first and last kiss.

Pacson, as Norhan was affectionately called, played basketball in leagues and for local teams during the annual town fiesta and was often the main subject of “live” FB coverage and break interviews by his “fans,” mostly, young ladies he was too courteous with, and small boys who would literally look up to him for his fair game

Before Southeast Asia’s fastest woman Lydia de Vega from Laguna in 1981, there was Mona Sulaiman from Tumbao, Cotabato (now Mother Kabuntalan, Maguindanao del Norte).

Mona Sulaiman was the first Filipina athlete to break the 12 seconds mark; and the only Filipina sportsperson from Mindanao famed to have become a champion at Asian Level.

There’s not much to Google about the career of Tocal Mokalam (from datu Piang), who even in his past-youth years ended the track at 10.2 seconds—literally seconds ahead of his tragic end, in falling by a terrace of the Rizal Memorial Stadium amphitheatre with his spiked track shoes on, or so the story went in 1975 when his remains were transported on a 6x6 military truck to Datu Piang where it was accorded brief ceremonial home honors.

Is there a hope Moro athlete to raise the Bangsamoro and Philippine Flags?