Pintakasi: How Advocating for Inclusive Education Inspires Timanan Central Elementary School to Transform through the KaISA Project
by The Teacher’s Gallery — Kathleen Emnas
Inclusive education is a significant step (in itself, also made of many steps) toward paving a just world for everyone, with no exceptions. In the impact it creates, one thing is often overlooked: within the passion of every advocate that seeks to make the world a better place, and that believes that it will happen, the community is often fostered as an unintended consequence.
As part of the KaISA Project’s implementation — led by the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) — to strengthen education systems towards inclusive education for all learners in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Timanan Central Elementary School (TCES) accepted the challenge to co-create a pilot Inclusive and Supportive Centre of Learning (ISCL) that is responsive to the contextual needs of learners. This was enacted through ‘Pintakasi’, or ‘bayanihan’, which refers to the Filipino cultural behaviour where an entire community comes together for a common cause. TCES practiced this through enabling collaboration among the school community by taking a whole-of-community approach, where the TCES school community fully demonstrated their open-mindedness and willingness to contribute.
With support from the Australian Government through the Education Pathways to Peace in Mindanao (‘the Pathways program’), this ISCL facility was launched on 23 May 2023, following the guidance of the project’s Human-Centered Design Thinking Approach.
Transforming through learning about inclusive education
When TCES first encountered the KaISA Project or the Inclusive Schools Approach (ISA) during the Division Education Planning and Development activity of the MBHTE, the newly introduced concepts were intimidating to them. The teachers were confused with the new terminologies and mindsets the partner implementing organisations laid out for them. Grade 5 Teacher Rubirosa “Ruby” Baron admitted that, at first, everything was so confusing for her.
“Now, you can foresee that it’s done, it’s already here. So, what we did (referring to the outputs of the co-designing sessions), that’s it. That’s what will be inside the hub. What’s left is the finishing touches. We’re ready for the launching. So, for everyone who has their assignments, let’s make sure to do our part to follow our timeline. Let’s help one another. No one will help us except ourselves. We’ve already been given the guidance to make this happen. We can do this,” Teacher Ruby declared.
For Rolet Joy Romero, a grade 6 teacher, initially interpreted the ISCL as a classroom.
“I thought that the ISCL was a classroom. So, we didn’t anticipate that the ISCL was this hub. I really didn’t know that this was a hub. We thought, I thought, and most of us thought that this was a classroom,” Teacher Rolet shared.
TCES Principal Lourdes Germo also felt what other teachers felt when she attended the training for the first time. ISA and what it aimed to do for Timanan and the rest of BARMM had not yet reached Timanan before this event.
“Fellow teachers, like you, we also went through the same as you when we attended the training for the first time. We also didn’t know anything about the ISCL. So that’s why we suggested having more trainings for those other teachers who are not able to attend so they can also have an idea of what the ISCL is. Because you, fellow teachers, those who can attend already know this program. Help us share this with our co-teachers, even our pupils, and our parents. Let’s help one another to achieve this. And the tasks that were assigned to us, let’s also help one another. There is no leader, there is no teacher, we are all on the same level, for the good of our program,” Principal Germo said.
Despite all these initial reactions to the ISA, TCES decided to continue attending the sessions being organised by the KaISA Project. As they continued, they began to grasp each concept of the ISA and inclusive education and saw the value that this would bring to their school community. This inevitably formed them into active KaISA Champions, which they voiced during the conclusion of the Pilot Testing and Simulation Activity for the pilot ISCL, led by the MBHTE.
Making inclusive education happen strengthens a community
Designing and launching the ISCL was no easy task, and this could not be done alone. Among the remarkable things that the TCES leaders of the pilot ISCL achieved was organising their community to build the ISCL together. More than a culmination of what the TCES school community had achieved with its partner implementing organisations, it was also a representation of what inclusion looked like: a celebration of diversity, of everything that made people unique, and of all the things people can achieve when they come together.
In creating the physical space of the ISCL, TCES educators, some individuals, and partner organisations contributed materials to complete it to actualise their vision of what an inclusive classroom looks like. All these were contributed by various individuals and organisations that support the TCES school community in their endeavour to make inclusive education a reality in their school. These are TCES educators, the MBHTE Directorate for Basic Education and its Bureau Directors, the Pathways program, and The Teacher’s Gallery, and other individuals.
Another highlight of the transformation that the ISCL inspired throughout South Upi is the local ordinance that was signed during the ISCL Launching. This ordinance, titled, “The KaISA Ordinance to Reach Every Child,” officially cements the commitment of South Upi to support the implementation of the ISA and ISCL for all learners in the municipality.
Remarkable as well is the monetary support that all schools in South Upi cumulatively raised to make the launch of the ISCL successful — a total of PHP 231,000 for ISCL launch preparations, food, decoration, labour, and other materials.
Moving toward the future of inclusive education
Fast forward to June 2023, the KaISA Project proceeded with further co-developing the ISCL by delving into the applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in the context of the Bangsamoro. This packaged the training resources that the project had provided in its past trainings on the foundations of the Inclusive Schools Approach to standardise and simplify the content, process, and expand the reach of the training program. This is in recognition of UDL as a critical and core competency to further expand the initiative to establish more ISCLs throughout the region and to facilitate the adoption of the ISA across all schools.
Since the commemorative signing during the ISCL Launching, the LGU is further developing the KaISA Ordinance by strengthening this with data management policies to support evidence-based planning for programs catered to learners with diverse needs. This effort will be linked to the Learner Information System (LIS) and Bangsamoro Education Management Information System (BEMIS) to further enable this. This shall also serve as an avenue to establish community linkages for data sharing toward the effective delivery of inclusive social services for all types of learners.
The ISCL of Timanan Central Elementary School will now serve as a model of inclusive practice not only for Timanan, but for all schools in South Upi. Now, when resources, trainings, and referral to other services are needed by diverse learners, the ISCL shall be the standpoint where school communities can learn about inclusive education and see how they can be part of the future of inclusive education in BARMM.