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/
