Education Access in Bangsamoro

What is and how should education access be in Bangsamoro?

Access to education is a fundamental human right of every constituent of the BARMM.

1. Catchment Areas and School Responsibility. – Towards ensuring that every school-aged child is provided access to education, the Ministry of Education shall craft a policy on catchment areas to ensure future creation of schools will not overlap and no areas are without access to school or any learning modality. Local government units (barangay, municipal/city, province), shall be primarily responsible for ensuring no learner is left behind, especially in accessing the mandatory basic education program; Further, the Ministry shall be gradually phasing out schools that are duplicating their coverage based on agreed parameters;

2. Differentiated Modalities. - Towards this end, the Ministry of Education shall explore and provide access to education to all the region’s constituents through different modalities and alternative delivery models that are attuned to the needs, preferences, backgrounds, and circumstances of the region’s constituents;

3. Parental Support. - It shall be the primary responsibility of the parents and or guardians to support their learners in accessing education services. Such access should be provided to learners throughout the period of their schooling.

4. Conducive Learning Environment. - The Ministry of Education shall ensure that teaching-learning continuum takes place in a conducive, safe, and friendly environment;

5. Affirmative Action. – The Ministry of Education shall ensure that learners from difficult backgrounds or circumstances, such as but not limited to juvenile delinquents, are provided additional support to keep them in school and complete the mandatory basic education program. In the same manner, exemplary learners in curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular programs are provided additional support to develop their full potential.

6. Free Access to Education. – The Ministry of Education shall ensure that all school-aged learners are able to access free education from kindergarten to college level. It shall also study and remove obstacles that hinder student access to free education. At the college level, it shall provide additional support to students enrolled in colleges/universities offering programs1 that can fast-track regional peace and development and jumpstart the region towards the 4th industrial revolution.

Footnotes
1 Technologies comprising the 4th Industrial revolution include: Robotics and its impact on the workplace, Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, The Internet of Things, Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), Additive manufacturing/3D printing, Autonomous vehicles, Block Chain and Data Science. - https://www.astrotech.co.za/training/the-4th-industrial-revolution/

The Learners, Pillars of Learning and the Learning Crisis

The educational system in the BARMM should be learner-centered. This implies the following:

(a) Nature of Learners. – The nature of the learners is fitrah, i.e. purity, inherent goodness with an innate inclination to learn and the potential to develop themselves. Consistent with new researches on neuroplasticity phenomenon in brain development, the fastest synaptic growth (thus malleability) occurs between the prenatal period and age 3 with growth then gradually slowing and completed by late adolescence or early adulthood. Further, learners come from diverse backgrounds with different ethnic and religious perspectives and language orientations, calling for teaching-learning flexibility in dealing with them; and these days, they have digital dexterity derived from their constant use of and exposure to print-rich internet and social media; and that their learning is not limited to the classroom or within the formal system.

Towards achieving the full potential and development of learners in the Bangsamoro, parents, civil society and government shall work together to support the learners during their periods of greatest plasticity, or “sensitive periods”1, by providing critical care and developmental support as had been articulated by UNICEF and BDA working on the tahderiyyah program.

(b) Pillars of Learning2. - Education throughout life is based on four (4) pillars – (1) learning to know, (2) learning to do, (3) learning to live together and (4) learning to be – within the regional context, cultural environment and either pedagogy3 or child-centered teaching-learning continuum or andragogy for adult learners. The regional education system shall now conceive education in a more encompassing fashion; and its future education formation, reformation and transformation shall be guided by a holistic, balanced and integrated framework and relevant assessment practice that puts to heart the care and welfare of the individual learners4.

(c) Addressing the Learning Crisis. – The Bangsamoro government recognizes the following facts: Schooling is not the same as learning; schooling without learning is not just a wasted opportunity, but a great injustice; and there is nothing inevitable about low learning in low- and middle-income countries or fragile environments. Through this Act the education ministry shall prioritize addressing three dimensions of the learning crisis that had been plaguing the regional system – (1) poor learning outcomes; (2) the immediate causes of the learning crises such as children arriving at school unprepared to learn, teachers often lack the skills or motivation to teach effectively, inputs often fail to reach classrooms or to affect learning and poor management and governance; and finally (3) deeper systemic causes5 of the learning crises.

Footnotes
1 Spotlight 1: The Biology of Learning, World Development Report 2018 - https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/28340/9781464810961_Spot01.pdf

2 UNESCO Four (4) Pillars of Learning - http://collections.infocollections.org/ukedu/en/d/Jh1767e/3.1.html

3 In the paper “What makes great pedagogy? Nine claims from research (2012)”, effective pedagogies include (1) giving serious consideration to pupil voice; (2) depends on behavior (what teachers do), knowledge and understanding (what teachers know) and beliefs (why teachers act as they do); (3) involving clear thinking about longer term learning outcomes as well as short-term goals; (4) building on pupils’ prior learning and experience; (5) scaffolding pupil learning; (6) involving a range of techniques, including whole-class and structured group work, guided learning and individual activity; (7) focusing on developing higher order thinking and meta-cognition, and make good use of dialogue and questioning in order to do so; (8) embedding assessment for learning; (9) including and taking the diverse needs of a range of learners, as well as matters of student equity, into account. - https://infolit.org.uk/teaching/developing-your-teaching/pedagogic-theory/

4 Differentiated Assessment - https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/assessment/differentiated-assessment - and Assessment for, as and of learning - https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/understanding-the-curriculum/assessment/approaches

5 World Development Report 2018: LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise - https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2018

Philosophy of Education and Human Development in Bangsamoro

What is the Philosophy of Education and Human Development in Bangsamoro?

The philosophy of education in the Bangsamoro shall be underpinned by the principles of holism, balanced education, and integration;

(a) Knowledge and Its Acquisition. – Knowledge (‘ilm) acquisition and dissemination holds a special place in Bangsamoro. Muslims, regardless of sex and socio-economic status, are obligated (fardh) to learn and disseminate it based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Further, because of its obligatory nature,1 knowledge is divided into “transmitted or revealed knowledge” (ulūm naqliyyah) and “acquired knowledge” (ulūm ‘aqliyyah). Learning transmitted or revealed knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim male and female, which includes Islamic morals (akhlaq) and etiquettes (adab); while learning the acquired knowledge is a collective obligation of the community.

(b) Holistic Way of Life. – Moros view human development not just in terms of aqīdah (belief system), ibadat (worship) and amal salīh (righteous deeds) but holistically, as tarīqul hayah (way of life) that includes physical, psychological, moral, social, cultural, scientific, political, economic, spiritual and aesthetic development;

(c) Balanced Education. – Moros view human development not just in terms of preparation for the world of work, the pursuit of good worldly life and career progress; but as a right combination, an equilibrium between theory and practice, between spiritual and secular, or healthy homeostasis of preparation for the dunyawiyyah (mundane, rational sciences) and ukhrawiyyah (hereafter, revealed sciences) or as diniyyah (religious) and dunyawiyyah (worldly);

(d) Integrated Education2. –Bangsamoros view human development not just in terms of cognitive development, of learning to know and knowing to learn; but as an integration of three (3) dimensions3: (1) ‘ta’allum’ (cognitive development), (2) ‘tarbiyyah’ (psychomotor or skills development) and (3) ‘ta’dīb’4 (affective development or values formation); thus a learner is formed, reformed and transformed in this integrated context to be learned (muta’allim), skilled (māhir) and moral (akhlāqī).

(e) Progressive Education. – Bangsamoros view learning and human development as a progression across three (3) stages – (1) Islam – learning and practicing the fundamentals of one’s faith, (2) Iman – learning and deepening one’s belief system, and (3) Ihsan – conducting oneself in the most excellent manner possible; and as a process of human liberation from nafs (basal instincts).

(f) Inclusive Education. – A system of education that is accessible to all of the BARMM’s diverse and differently-abled constituents. Seeking knowledge is lifelong, from cradle to grave, and shall be obligatory and equitable to every male and female as echoed in the Moro tradition. As BARMM moves toward a highly-functional society, inclusivity is a pillar for sustainable peace and development.