Wednesday, February 22, 2012

DepEd-ARMM Regional Secretary urges school officials and teachers to support reforms

COTABATO CITY, Feb. 21 (PIA) -- The regional secretary of the education department of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) called on teachers and school officials to support the reforms being instituted in the department and assured readiness to have regular meetings to boost the mentors’ morale in pursuit of an improved education system in the autonomous region.

According to Maguindanao Schools Division I Supt. Meriam Kawit, DepED-ARMM regional secretary Jamar Kulayan met with more than 2,700 teachers, district supervisors and division officials of Maguindanao Division I on February 17, 2012.

Kawit said, Secretary Kulayan emphasized the urgency of instituting needed reforms such as the use of ATM system for salaries of teachers to address and cleanse the issues of “ghost teachers, ghost school buildings and ghost pupils” among others, hounding the agency for the past decades.

Kawit added, they welcome and support the efforts of the regional secretary Jamar Kulayan to reach out and personally hear the issues and concerns of teachers particularly on regular release of their salaries and lack of supplies.

 “We appreciate the initiative of our new regional secretary, specially may practice among teachers na isinanla ang kanilang ATM sa money lender at balak na mag-apply ng panibagong ATM card”( Specially some teachers have the practice of pawning their ATM to money lender and the plans to apply for another new ATM), she said.

Kawit also said the regional secretary has warned public school teachers against illegal collection of graduation and year book fees and other contribution, emphasizing the holding of simple graduation rites. (pbchangco/PIA Cotabato City)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

DepEd: Luistro confident with new DepEd ARMM leadership

Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Br. Armin A. Luistro FSC expressed his confidence in the leadership of newly appointed Regional Secretary of DepEd Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Jamar Kulayan.

In a meeting held recently between the two education leaders, Luistro offered to Kulayan the full support of the DepEd national office. “We express strong confidence in the new DepEd ARMM administration. We offer our full support to their programs and new initiatives. This will be a good opportunity for us to work closer together, to be more collaborative, and have better coordination. All this is for the education of the children in Mindanao.”

Kulayan, on the other hand, assured his counterpart that they aim to make a difference and elevate the quality of education in ARMM. “We want to institutionalize reforms. We want to be able to say that ‘Mindanao is back in business.’ We have initiated the ‘Reform ARMM Movement’ in the regional government to implement critical reforms.”

While one is autonomous from the other, Luistro and Kulayan agree that this does not prevent them from sharing solutions to problems. “ARMM concerns are also DepEd concerns. ARMM concerns are concerns of the whole country,” both said.

Luistro expressed the national government’s appreciation of the efforts of the new leadership. “We salute the new leadership for the good things that are happening in ARMM,” he shared. “We wish to assure Secretary Kulayan and the DepEd ARMM family that we will help them achieve their goal to bring the quality of their personnel and service to higher standards.”

The DepEd ARMM team visited the education headquarters to exchange notes and familiarize themselves with the operations of the national office.

Among those discussed during the meeting are the administrative and operational procedures and organization of both agencies, their common and unique programs and projects, and ways to work together for the common goal of providing Education for All.

Friday, February 3, 2012

ZT: Deep-rooted anomalies in DepEd ARMM hard to fix

So deep-rooted and complex are the anomalies in the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that the new administration is certain the problems cannot be fixed in the next five month. The region’s officer-in-charge, Mujiv Hataman, said the most serious of the irregularities they discovered in the DepEd-ARMM were about a thousand ghost teachers, non-existent schools and the overly bloated number of enrolments to increase the operations budget of enrolling institutions.

Hataman said usurers, or “loan sharks,” engaged in a money lending scheme forbidden in Islam, also made the lives of teachers, who have perennially been complaining of delayed payment of their salaries, so miserable that their efficiency has been badly affected.

Hataman, in a public forum in Cotabato City Tuesday, organized by the Notre Dame University (NDU) and the foreign-assisted Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), said among the anomalies he discovered were the “unbelievable” high population of grade school pupils and high school students in Tawi-Tawi than those listed in the much bigger provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

Tawi-Tawi only has more than a dozen small island towns, while Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur covers 36 and 43 municipalities, respectively.

The president of the NDU in Cotabato City, Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud, and the director of the IAG, Oblate missionary Eliseo Mercado, Jr. found Hataman’s revelations so frustrating.

“These are the reasons why quality of education in the autonomous region has been so low over the years. People in the region should pool their strengths together to help address these problems,” said Tanudtanud who also belong the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, which has more than a dozen schools in mainland Mindanao, Sulu and in Tawi-Tawi.

Mercado, whose peace-building projects in the South are funded by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, said a special task force comprised of volunteers from private schools, the Islamic and Christian communities, political groups, and representatives from the ARMM and MalacaƱang has to be organized to help fix the regional education department.

Hataman told participants to the forum, held at NDU’s 300-seater mini-theater, that he was forced to suspend the implementation of a previous P1 billion school building project for remote towns pending a prior evaluation by representatives from the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Commission on Audit.

“The implementation was suspended, meantime, because there are ghost teachers, ghost pupils and ghost schools in the autonomous region. We have to wipe them out first before we can fix everything in the almost dysfunctional DepEd-ARMM,” said Hataman, who assumed as OIC-governor only last December 22.

Hataman said they also found out that there are children of education officials in the province who are employed as teachers, but are at the same working abroad as tutors of children of wealthy foreign families.

“In Basilan, my home-province, there are 1,300 teachers and 300 of them are fakes,” Hataman pointed out. “There are also dozens of teachers that have long died of illnesses, but whose names still appear on the payrolls.”

Participants to the forum, among them representatives of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and vasrious non-government organizations involved in foreign-funded peace-building projects in Moro communities, gave Hataman a rousing applause when he announced that his administration will now release teachers’ salaries through the banks, direct to their respective accounts.

“This will stop irregularities. No ghost teacher can ever have an automated teller machine card. There will be no more delays in the payment of their salaries and fringe benefits,” Hataman said.

Hataman said graft and corruption in the regional bureaucracy worsened over the years because past presidents “allowed” them to happen.

“Imagine? We even have to tap now the intelligence units of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police to help us validate the identities and existence of ghost teachers, ghost schools and pupils. It’s really that bad,” Hataman said.

Mercado, whose outfit is soon to be assisted by the European Union, said they are just as ready to help “capacitate” division superintendents and their subordinates that are directly involved in managing the schools divisions in the ARMM.

By “capacitate,” Mercado meant interventions, such as orientations and open discussions, on management skills and competencies, to be initiated with the help of experts, such as academicians, that are actively helping the IAG’s peace-building projects in the South.

The IAG, meanwhile, inaugurated its new office after Tuesday’s public forum at NDU.

The IAG now occupies the entire second floor of the Umex Building at the NDU campus, along the Notre Dame Avenue in Cotabato City.

The inauguration was spearheaded by Mercado, Tanudtanud, Hataman, Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani, Jr., and representatives of the Iranun Development Council led by Mayor Ibrahim Ibay of Parang, Maguindanao. — Felix Ostrea

Philstar: Anomalies, calamities hinder DepEd-ARMM operation

By John Unson

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – So deep-rooted are the anomalies in the Department of Education in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DepEd-ARMM) that its new administration is certain the problems cannot be fixed in the next five months.

Mujiv Hataman, the ARMM’s officer in charge, said natural calamities and armed conflicts may have also stifled the services of the department, but not as serious as the magnitude of damage corruption has done to education services, involving well-entrenched “syndicates” in the bureaucracy.

Hataman said the most serious of the irregularities they discovered in the DepEd-ARMM were about a thousand ghost teachers, ghost, or non-existent schools and the padded number of enrolments to increase the budget of enrolling institutions.

Hataman said usurers, or “loan sharks,” engaged in a money lending scheme forbidden in Islam, also made the lives of teachers so miserable that their efficiency has been badly affected.

Hataman, in a public forum here Tuesday, organized by the Notre Dame University (NDU) and the foreign-assisted Institute of Autonomy and Governance (IAG), said among the anomalies he discovered were the “unbelievable” high population of grade school pupils and high school students in Tawi-Tawi as compared to those listed in the much bigger provinces of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur.

Tawi-Tawi only has more than a dozen small island towns, while Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur covers 36 and 43 municipalities, respectively.

Frustrating
NDU president Fr. Eduardo Tanudtanud and IAG director Oblate priest Eliseo Mercado Jr. expressed frustration over Hataman’s revelations.

“These are the reasons why quality of education in the autonomous region has been so low over the years. We have to pool their strengths together to help address these problems,” said Tanudtanud.

Mercado, whose peace-building projects in the south are funded by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung of Germany, said a special task force comprised of volunteers from private schools, the Islamic and Christian communities, political groups, representatives from the ARMM and MalacaƱang have to be organized to help “cure” the regional education department.

Project in question
Hataman said he was forced to suspend the implementation of a P1 billion school building project for remote towns pending a prior evaluation by representatives from the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Commission on Audit.

“The implementation was suspended because there are ghost teachers, ghost pupils and ghost schools in the autonomous region. We have to wipe them out first before we can fix everything in the almost dysfunctional DepEd-ARMM,” said Hataman, who assumed only last December 22.

Hataman said they also found out that there are relatives of education officials in the province who are employed as teachers, but are “absentees” and works abroad as tutors of children of wealthy families or as caregivers.

“In Basilan, my home-province, there are 1,300 teachers and 300 of them are fakes,” Hataman pointed out. “There are also dozens of teachers that have long died of illnesses, but whose names still appear on the payrolls.”

ATM payroll accounts
Participants to the forum, among them representatives of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, non-government organizations involved in foreign-funded peace-building projects in Moro communities, applauded when Hataman announced that they will now release teachers’ salaries through the banks.

“Hopefully this will stop irregularities. No ghost teacher can ever acquire an automated teller machine card. We are hoping there will be no more delays in the payment of their salaries and fringe benefits,” Hataman said.

"Moral Governance"

English - "Good governance for a progressive and peaceful BARMM."

Sinama - "Hap pamarinta tudju BARMM na sambu maka salamat"

Bahasa Sug - "Dan mabuntul tudju pa BARMM masambu iban mahatul"

Meranaw - "Mathitu a kandatu sa BARMM ko katagompiya go kalilintad"

Slogan

"Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE)"