Thursday, June 4, 2015

Turkiye Scholarship 2015 - Deadline is June 13, 2015 - Apply directly

Secretary Dr John Magno encourages teachers to apply for this scholarship by directly applying online - https://basvuru.turkiyeburslari.gov.tr/en/.

However to qualify for "Study Leave with Pay", he reminded that teacher-qualifiers from DepEd-ARMM should meet the following additional requirements:
  1. Is a permanent employee of any ARMM agencies 
  2. Have been in service for at least 2 years 
  3. Degree pursued is align with present position or designation




Tuesday, June 2, 2015

NDBCNews: All well in first day of classes in ARMM public schools

John Magno, newly appointed regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (left) tours an elementary campus in Maguindanao province.
John Magno, newly appointed regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (left) tours an elementary campus in Maguindanao province.
By John Unson

COTABATO CITY -- With mentors hopeful of hurdling perennial challenges such as shortages in rooms and other facilities, all went well with Monday’s start of classes in five southern Muslim provinces.

Dr. John Magno, education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said not a single untoward incident happened in any of the schools in Mguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces on Monday, the first day of classes for school year 2015-2016.

Magno said the executive department of the autonomous region --- under the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG) --- has been trying to address since 2012 the lack of classrooms in far-flung areas via engineering interventions using funds from the Department of Education and infrastructure allocations from the regional budget.

Teachers on Monday said the problems besetting their schools were merely inherited by ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman, passed on by previous administrations that embezzled DepEd funds and made the agency a “milking cow” through thousands of ghost teachers.

The names of the non-existent teachers were listed in payrolls, with corresponding salaries divided by scheming education officials, whose appointments were co-terminus with their principal regional governors.

“The DepEd-ARMM was so mismanaged during the time of past governors,” a principal in the first district of Maguindanao, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, told reporters during Monday’s tour of Magno in selected schools in the province.

Magno said Hataman had issued a directive for teachers to intensify the peace education thrusts of ARMM schools in support of the Mindanao peace process.

Magno said the regional government recognizes the importance of imparting peace education to children as a means of promoting co-existence among ARMM’s culturally-pluralistic Moro, Christian and non-Muslim indigenous sectors.

“In the meantime, we are thanking the police, the military, the barangay leaders and local government units for helping facilitate the June 1 resumption of classes in the ARMM,” Magno said.

The DepEd-ARMM hired more than 2,000 duly licensed teachers, through a stringent selection process, from middle of 2014 until first quarter of this year to professionalize the department’s rank-and-file personnel structure.

The move was partly meant to fill the void caused by Hataman’s delisting of thousands of ghost teachers from old DepEd-ARMM payrolls.

Monday, June 1, 2015

PhilStar: New ARMM DepEd secretary assumes post

By John Unson (philstar.com) | Updated May 26, 2015 - 6:33pm

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - An industrial psychologist on Monday assumed as new regional education secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The now Regional Education Secretary John Magno took over from Jamar Kulayan, who resigned last week after a three-year stint under the administration of ARMM Gov, Mujiv Hataman.

Magno first worked in the ARMM government from early 2012 to July 2013 as chief-of-staff in the Office of the Regional Governor (ORG), while Hataman was its appointed caretaker yet.

The ORG is touted as the “Little MalacaƱang” of ARMM, which covers Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur, both in mainland Mindanao, and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

Hataman was elected as ARMM’s eight regional governor on May 13, 2013.

Hataman appointed Magno as his new education secretary only last week.

Magno read his oath of office before ARMM’s executive secretary, Laisa Alamia, at the conference hall of the ORG in Cotabato City last Monday.

Magno was the assistant secretary for operations of the Department of Education in ARMM when Kulayan was chief of the regional agency.

While DepEd-ARMM assistant secretary, Magno reformed the anomalous procedure of hiring teachers for deployment in the region’s five provinces, effectively nipping from its bud a long-time tradition of bribery and political interference in the selection of entrants.

The flawed enlistment process, which started as early as the time of the region’s first ever elected chief executive following the 1990 inception of the autonomous region via a referendum, earned for DepEd-ARMM the moniker “most corrupt office” under ORG.

Hataman had appointed more than 2,000 duly-licensed teachers in recent months, all passers of a tedious theoretical and actual teaching proficiency evaluation system devised by Magno in support of the governor’s effort to professionalize the DepEd-ARMM operation.

Among Hataman’s first official acts when he assumed as officer-in-charge of ARMM in December 2011 was the delisting of thousands of “ghost teachers” from the old payrolls of the DepEd-ARMM.

Source: http://www.philstar.com/nation/2015/05/26/1459007/new-armm-deped-secretary-assumes-post

Interaksyon: From 'corruption capital,' ARMM passes govt test, makes history in governance

By: Philippines News Agency, May 31, 2015 8:39 AM

COTABATO CITY -- For the first time in the region’s history, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has passed the national government’s Good Governance Conditions (GGC) reflecting “a revitalized and reformed autonomous region,” officials said Saturday.

Lawyer Laisa Alamia, ARMM executive secretary, said passing the GCC under the Results-Based Performance Management System was “proof that reforms in the ARMM are working.”

“We have the autonomous region that was touted to be a failed experiment, additional to that is the people’s hopeless mindset of its progressive change. But with this perfect compliance with the six GGC criteria, it shows our reforms work,” she said.

The Results-Based Performance Management System monitors the performance of government agencies, in line with the Aquino administration’s commitment to good governance by encouraging exemplary performance and effective service delivery to the people.

The six criteria under the GGC are: Performance-Based Bonus Targets, Transparency Seal, Philippine General Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) Posting, Liquidation of All Cash Advances, Citizen’s Charter, and Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

According to Alamia, despite the challenges of complying with the requirements because of ARMM’s unique government structure, the regional government managed to pass the conditions because of the hard work of the region’s officials and employees.

She said the efforts for the ARMM’s success started with the leadership of Governor Mujiv Hataman even when he was still an officer-in-charge governor on December 2011. Hataman was later elected as governor on May 2013.

“When Hataman came in as acting governor, a series of assessments about the region’s problems and issues were conducted. When he was elected, development plans like the Regional Development Plan (RDP) and the three-year Strategic Convergence Plan for 2013-2015 that serve as a transition plan for the Bangsamoro were drafted,” Alamia noted.

”It was unprecedented. The first for ARMM since its creation 25 years ago,” she said, adding hands-on management of ARMM’s different line agencies was conducted and they were directed to stick with their plans and targets for the Performance-Based Bonus Targets.

“We have strengthened our database management system for all ARMM line agencies, and the monitoring and evaluation of our projects and programs,” she said.

“We required all agencies to create websites and post their financial transactions and budget expenses beginning 2012 for the Transparency Seal that would signify the message of open governance,” Alamia said.

All agencies of ARMM are registered in the PhilGEPS, which requires the agencies to post public procurements in the PhilGEPS website as a government’s tool for procurement reforms and transparency.

Corruption capital before

Because of unliquidated cash advances in the past administrations, ARMM was known as the country’s corruption capital.

“An executive order was released in 2012 disallowing cash advances. We started at the Office of the Regional Governor and later we expanded it to the entire region,” Alamia said.

Offices in the region have also complied with the Citizen’s Charter -- a government’s tool to present systematic commitment to the people.

Alamia said more than 30,000 employees, including 27,000 teachers, in the region have filed their SALN as required by law which was “a first time in ARMM.”

“Once we transition to the Bangsamoro, we will be turning over a government that has leveled-up when it comes to good governance,” she said.

Further, she said professionalism of officials and employees of the region brought about by good governance compliance will be a challenge for the Bangsamoro.

“It’s either the Bangsamoro government will maintain or exceed the level of professionalism of the present bureaucracy,” Alamia added.

Having passed the GGC, the ARMM is 100 percent ready for the transition to the Bangsamoro, she said.

A new political entity as a result of the government peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will replace the current ARMM once the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) shall have been approved and implemented.

"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)"