Passing on the Torch: A Gift that Keeps on Giving
by Pathways — Arnold Divino
In 2019, 3 organisations that had common and shared journeys in delivering education through flexible learning options got together to replicate and scale up the good practices they learned from their projects in the then-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in the south of the Philippines. These groups — the Notre Dame University (NDU) in Cotabato City, the Philippine-founded Community and Family Services International (CFSI), and the Basilan-based Nagdilaab Foundation, Inc. (NFI) — had jointly implemented a 5-year, Bangladesh-modelled education project that they started in 2012. This project delivered education services to school-less barangays by establishing community learning centres and deploying learning facilitators as teachers. This was a particularly welcome development for barangays whose lack of access to education services was compounded by other issues such as geographic isolation, armed conflict, and violent feuds among local warring families or clans. By having learning centres right in the heart of the barangays, the children no longer needed to walk several kilometres or face risks to their lives just to go to school. Most notably, this led to an increase in the participation and completion rates of children and a reduction in dropout rates.
By the time the project ended in 2017, the children that started studying at the learning centres had reached and finished Grade 5. Most of them were old enough to walk to the mainstream schools outside their barangays to go on to Grade 6 and complete their elementary education. However, there were still areas where the isolation from the nearest schools was so extreme . It was for this reason that the 3 organisations approached the Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao (Pathways) program — a 9-year cooperation between the governments of Australia and the Philippines — and sought a one-year cooperation to enable children who were left behind in extremely isolated and vulnerable areas to start and complete Grade 6. These groups also offered breakthroughs and learnings from their experiences that would later prove beneficial in one of Pathways’ program activities.
With support from Pathways, the 3 organisations simultaneously started the Grade 6 level in 33 learning centres in Maguindanao (by NDU); Lanao del Sur (by CFSI); and the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi (by NFI) in July 2019. These were the first non-emergency education access projects of Pathways under the Responsive Innovation Fund (RIF), which provides stakeholders, both inside and outside of government, opportunities to contribute in creative ways in developing locally crafted solutions to local problems on education and peace. Pathways granted them funds to improve their learning centres and provide the learning facilitators and the children with teaching and learning materials. The partners proceeded to implement the project under the close supervision of the then-Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM) Transition Team of the previous Department of Education (DepEd) in the ARMM.
To ensure smooth implementation and increase the likelihood of a successful transition, they applied the good practices from their previous engagements and introduced more innovations. Some noteworthy examples of these innovations are placing the learning centres under the authority and close supervision of catchment schools — the nearest mainstream public schools they share a school ID with; giving monthly refresher courses to the learning facilitators to improve their teaching capacities — with the help of Pathways, the mainstream schools, and the Schools Division Offices; and holding a region-wide ADM Summit to promote sharing of success stories and lessons learned among partners and learning facilitators.
In April 2020, the 3 partners proudly presented to Pathways 674 children (335 boys and 339 girls) who completed their elementary education in separate graduation rites. The learning facilitators, parents, and children braved the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to honour the graduates in online, house-to-house, or socially distanced in-person ceremonies. In the words of Abdulhamid A. Balowa, the valedictorian of the Tapurog community learning centre in Piagapo, Lanao del Sur, graduating at that time was a bittersweet occasion. ‘April 2020 is supposed to be a month of celebration. It’s a month when students are excited to celebrate their graduation with their parents, relatives, friends, and teachers. However, it’s heartbreaking that our traditional graduation ceremony was cancelled because of the pandemic. In spite of that, I would like to thank the people who helped us continue our education and the organisations that supported them,’ Abdulhamid said.
Three months prior to the graduation, and 5 months before the project ended in July 2020, the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), which by then had transitioned from the DepEd-ARMM, launched the Abot Kaalaman sa Pamilyang Bangsamoro (AKAP) program on 31 January 2020. Then a newly founded flagship program of the MBHTE inspired by the success stories of the partners, AKAP was established with support from Pathways to be an instrument in delivering basic education services to a further 210 school-less barangays in the Bangsamoro region. The 33 learning centres and their learning facilitators that Pathways supported through the RIF served as building blocks in starting the AKAP program.
In 2023, the AKAP program, under the guidance of the MBHTE Access Technical Working Group, has already established learning centres in 106 school-less barangays throughout the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Indeed, the project initiated by NDU, CFSI, and NFI with the support of Pathways is a gift that keeps on giving.