Working strengthen Madrasah education

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The Department of Education (DepEd) is strengthening Madrasah education to put Muslim students on equal footing with students from regular schools in finding employment after graduation.

According to Education Secretary Armin Luistro, strengthening the education of Muslim students will give them “an equal chance of being employed as their counterparts in sectarian and non-sectarian schools because they have been properly prepared.”



Luistro said Madrasah education is one of President Benigno S. Aquino III’s priorities in his 10-point education agenda. “For 2011, he approved the allocation of P300 million—from P200 million in 2010—to fund various initiatives to ensure that the education the Muslims get is culturally-sensitive, Islam-friendly and able to respond to their learning needs,” he said.



When Luistro assumed office last year, one of the first things he did was create the Office of Madrasah Education under the Undersecretary for Programs and Projects, Dr. Yolanda Quijano. It replaced the Office of Muslim Affairs which used to be headed by an undersecretary. “Since DepEd is allowed only four undersecretaries, the former undersecretary was retained as consultant,” Luistro said.



He acknowledged the need to have an undersecretary and a separate office when Madrasah education was on its development stage. “But now that it is on its seventh year and the foundations have been laid, its operations have been integrated under the undersecretary for programs and project,” he said.



Early this year, the DepEd chief also signed a memorandum of agreement with Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Ansarrudin Alonto-Adiong for the implementation of Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) curricula in the region.



“Because of concerns in the past, no education secretary in previous administrations was able to implement ALIVE in the ARMM where it is critically needed,” Luistro said. And, to get things started, he ordered the release of R75 million for preparatory activities such as the orientation and training of Muslim teachers or “asatidz.”



“This is the first time it is going to be implemented in ARMM even as ALIVE is already taught in public schools and private Muslim schools (madaris) nationwide,” Luistro said.



ALIVE’s curriculum for the elementary level, which was first implemented in school year 2005-2006, was reviewed and refined last year with SEAMEO-INNOTECH as service provider.



The outcome was the Refined Elementary Curriculum (REMC) which was jointly revisited by curriculum experts from DepEd’s Bureau of Elementary Education and Ulama (Muslim educators).





Zaid Mohammad Abdul-Rahman Duarte is a freelance writer and blogger based in the Brazil. He can be reached mmdroxo@hotmail.com .

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Syndicate of Muslim Slaughterman.