Kuwentong PagkakaISA: Making a Change for Inclusivity — Field Enumerators’ Stories from Lamitan
By The Teacher’s Gallery, Vincent Kynth Baliguat
With support from the Australian Government, the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE) identified and located learners with functional difficulties through the KaISA Project, an initiative that promotes inclusive education in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). The Ministry organised the Child Finding Activity, or the 20-Day Campaign to Reach Every Child, in all school divisions in the BARMM. Team Leader Ma. Cristina Delos Santos led the activity in the School Division Office (SDO) of Lamitan along with 10 educators and school staff as field enumerators . In 20 days, the team unearthed many stories of children with disabilities in Bangsamoro.
Challenges to reaching every child in Lamitan
The field enumerators assigned to Lamitan experienced many challenges in pursuing their goal. For instance, they’ve endured heavy rains, impassable roads, poor internet connection, and power outages .. However, the most difficult scenario was dealing with families feeling reluctant to take part in the survey, especially since that the enumerators were considered outsiders . To address this barrier between them and the community, the team cooperated with the local community leaders to bridge the needed connection.
Eventually, the community warmed up to them, with parents of children with functional difficulties even taking the initiative to gather the data they needed. Tha families acknowledge that this was vital to identifying the issues hindering the children of their community from pursuing education.
Barriers to education for children with functional difficulties
Many of the SDO Lamitan’s constituents belong to a community of indigenous people called the Badjao. Education was especially difficult for indigenous children to access. Among the findings documented during the Child Finding Activity was children lacking important documents required by schools, such as birth certificates. Meanwhile, Badjao children also experienced bullying thus discouraging them from going to school. Some also identified the trauma caused by family conflicts as a struggle that they dealt with. The combination of all these difficulties can potentially contribute to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Like the Badjao, children from indigenous groups have experienced historical marginalisation that has made education inacessible. Teacher Cristina also identified other factors such as economic poverty, child labor, and geographic isolation. The lack of competent teachers to serve in impoverished and isolated communities further complicates these educational barriers.
Understanding the context and gaining new perspective
By participating in the Child Finding Activity, Teacher Cristina gained a new perspective on the significance of reaching every child for valuable information on their situation and how the data can help address the barriers to quality education that marginalised learners encounter. By providing a platform to identify, provide referrals, and support learners and teachers alike, it is an opportunity to strategise providing not only educational opportunities but also interventions for poverty that can improve their quality of life such as financial assistance from the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD).
Teacher Cristina is dedicated to coach and mentor educators and school staff to enhance what they can achieve within 20 days as part of the Campaign to Reach Every Child. Recognising that this is only the beginning of making education more inclusive in Lamitan, she is now committed to furthering the reach and impact of the Inclusive Schools Approach.
Teacher Cristina thinks the activity was the first step in generating programs fitted for learners’ educational and intersectional needs. For her, aside from the campaign, there should also be intervention and assessment in regular schools for more programs promoting inclusion for all learners to be implemented effectively.
“[The 20-Day Campaign to Reach Every Child] is still our obligation. While we had served [by] enumerating learners in barangays, it was found out that in regular schools, we had learners [who were manifesting functional] difficulties that [needed] to be served prior to addressing needs of regular teachers who are already in mainstreamed classes,” Delos Santos added.
With the efforts made by SDO Lamitan to provide quality, inclusive education to the learners of Lamitan City through the Child Finding Activity, it is important that all sectors of the community also contribute to making education reach all children and provide effective programs to address their needs.