From "Stipend of Madrasah teachers hiked" By TONY PE. RIMANDO, Manila Bulletin, November 20, 2011, 3:56pm
PAGADIAN CITY, Philippines – Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Armin A. Luistro has ordered the increase to P5,000 each the monthly allowance of teachers of Madrasah (Islamic institutions of learning) deployed in various areas of Mindanao, and other Muslim-populated regions of the country.
Luistro said the Madrasah mentors (known as Asatidz) – who handle the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) subjects in public elementary schools – were previously paid a monthly allowance of P3,000 on top of the honorarium granted to them by concerned local government units (LGUs) where they are assigned.
The DepEd chief explained through Dr. Manaros Boransing, DepEd consultant for Muslim Education, that close to 2,500 Asatidz who passed the initial Arabic Qualifying Examination prior to their completion of the 23-day Pre-Service Training on Language Enhancement and Pedagogy, have been teaching ALIVE subjects for the past five years in various public elementary schools with substantial number of Muslim pupils.
Boransing said these Muslim pupil-populated elementary schools are located mostly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) provinces of Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, and Lanao del Sur, even as other regions in the Southern Philippines as well as Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon, and the Visayas where many Muslim families, largely due to their innate trading business, have virtu-ally transferred residence.
Boransing, a former executive of the Mindanao State University (MSU), said majority of the DepEd-hired Asatidz were earlier professionalized after completing the required two-year Accelerated Teacher Education Program (ATEP) developed by the education department in partnership with the Australian Agency for In-ternational Development (AusAID)-funded Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) project based in Davao City.
The ATEP, through a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the education department, was offered by Mindanao-based state and private universities, which later conferred on the graduates appropriate Certifi-cates of Completion.
According to Boransing, some of these ATEP graduates, later hurdled the Licensure Examination for Teach-ers (LET) prompting the DepEd to permanently employ them as regular public elementary school teachers with a monthly entrance salary of over P15,000 each, Boransing said, adding that these DepEd-hired LET passer Asatidz were later replaced by newly trained and qualified Asatidz who took over the former’s positions as ALIVE subject tutors.
Boransing explained that through the teaching of ALIVE subjects, many Filipino Muslim pupils have become more disciplined and nationalistic without neglecting their devotion to their indigenous traditions and prac-tices as Muslims.
The DepEd consultant for Muslim Education expressed optimism that the teaching of Asatidz to Muslim children will ultimately help solve the peace and order problem in Mindanao, as the native pupils will grow to be more law-abiding, more productive, and more useful members of their respective communities.
