COTABATO CITY – After a rigorous eight-hour deliberation, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority unanimously approved Bill No. 70 or the proposed Bangsamoro Education Code (BEC) on third and final reading in a special session today. This shall be known as Bangsamoro Autonomous Act No. 18, the third priority legislation passed by the Parliament.
Vice Chairperson on the Committee on Basic, Higher, and Technical Education MP Rasol Mitmug on Tuesday assisted MP Mohagher Iqbal in answering queries from other Members of the Parliament during the Bangsamoro Education Code’s period of interpellation.
Responding to MP Amir Mawallil’s questions, he explained that students within the Bangsamoro will still take the National Achievement Test, although the region has been given powers for its own assessment of the students. Teachers within the Bangsamoro will still receive training from the Department of Education, but the Ministry on Basic, Higher, and Technical Education may also provide localized training for teachers.
On the integration of Bangsamoro history in the curriculum, MP Iqbal said that new textbooks and materials would still have to be made.
“Anything in the national system still applies to BARMM since our educational system is a subsystem of the national. As to specialization, our supervisors usually focus on jurisdictional area but now they will be focusing on subject matters. In every division there will be specialized supervisors,” Vice Chair Mitmug added on the query of MP Mawallil on strengthening teachers’ subject specialization.
MP Mitmug emphasized that one of the objectives of the Code is the promotion and strengthening of school management citing Section 84, Chapter 6 of the legislation. The newly passed BEC shall cover and govern all education systems, whether formal, non-formal and informal, public and private learning institutions, in all levels, to be collectively referred to as the “Bangsamoro Education System”.
The BEC was filed and introduced by Minister Iqbal back in October last year and went through series of committee hearings and consultations for over six months.