CITY OF COTABATO: The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM-MBHTE) has hired a total of 1,153 licensed teachers for the two districts of Maguindanao province to raise the quality of education system in the region.
Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal said on Saturday that their “aim is to have a balanced, inclusive, relevant and quality Bangsamoro education system for our children. The vision is possible if we have quality teachers.
He added that a total of 569 newly hired primary and secondary school teachers for the Maguindanao First Division signed their appointment and deployment orders during BARMM’s first mass signing and swearing-in ceremony on Thursday at the Shariff Kabunsuan cultural complex, at Bangsamoro government center in this city.
A similar ceremony was held on Friday, for the 584 newly hired teachers for Maguindanao’s second division. Iqbal said that “teachers are perhaps the most influential role models for young people”, reminding teachers to support the regional government’s advocacy on moral governance.
Tarhata Balabagan, 31, who will be deployed to Maguindanao First Division, said she is grateful to the Bangsamoro government now that she is finally employed as a public school teacher.
Balabagan added that she passed her Teachers License Examination (LET) in 2017 and tried her luck teaching in North Cotabato but was unsuccessful. She then volunteered at a local school before applying to BARMM.
Meanwhile, Aisah Calim, 22, has also been volunteering at a local school, hoping that one day she will land a teaching job, just like her father.
She passed the LET in December 2018.
For Balabagan and Calim, this is their first professional career as licensed teachers.
Teachers mission
Chief Minister of Bangsamoro Government Ahod “Al Haj Murad” Ebrahim through his Deputy Executive Secretary Abdullah Cusain said reforming the MBHTE is one of their immediate actions to ensure that the region had “credible teachers on the ground to provide high quality education to our students.”
He added: “I hope that beyond the basic ABCs of teaching, you will also integrate the importance of moral values into your lessons. We hope to raise a Bangsamoro who is not only intellectually fit, but morally guided, especially with our shared values as a people.
The chief minister said licensed teachers had “the opportunity to reshape this region” and “reshape the education system in Bangsamoro”.
“You have the rare opportunity to shape an entire generation that will eventually succeed in the direction of the Bangsamoro,” he added.
This month, BARMM-MBHTE will conduct a selection and shortlisting process for teaching candidates in Basilan and Tawi-Tawi divisions, while the timing of the selection process for Sulu and Lanao del Sur divisions has not yet been announced by the ministry.
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