BARMM holds education summit to empower more local schools

Photo from BARMM website

MANILA, Philippines — Ministers of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), local educational institutions, and educators have gathered together for the first BARMM Education Summit recently held in Lanang.

The BARMM website said the gathering of officials and stakeholders was initiated to discuss ways to use education as a means of promoting peace and development in the region.

Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) Chief Mohager Iqbal and the rest of the ministry led the proceedings at the event. All the attendees contributed to a focused, intensive, and inclusive consultations on continuing education and grassroots development for the education sector in the region.

Iqbal, in his State of the Education Address, emphasized that “education is a pillar of nation building.”

“It can help society sustainably and logically sustain and overcome significant impediments – poverty, injustice, corruption, and conflict,” the Education Minister said.

Iqbal also read a message from Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, which highlighted the role of education in post-conflict reconstruction and in sustaining the gains of peace. “We counteract violent extremism by nurturing among our children and youth the values of inclusion, tolerance, conflict resolution, and non-violence,” the vice president underscored.

“Let us work together to reshape the future of BARMM by strengthening our education system, filling the learning gaps caused by the pandemic and instituting a culture of peace curriculum to ensure a successful post-conflict reconstruction,” Duterte said in her letter.

BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Embrahim also delivered a video message, wherein he hoped that the first education summit will be a fundamental avenue to build and rebuild nations.

“The Education Summit is an opportunity to replicate the message of how significant education and literacy are in nation-building. It is also a venue to strengthen and empower local school boards, school governing councils, and parent-teacher associations,” he emphasized.

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JPV