Wednesday, December 24, 2014

MILF: DepEd, NABEI meet on delayed financial assistance for private madaris, other issues

Posted to the MILF Website (Dec 22): DepEd, NABEI meet on delayed financial assistance for private madaris, other issues



Top leadership of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday, December 16, assured private madaris to receive two years of their financial assistance early next year; improvement of government program for madaris or Arabic Schools; and participation of National Association for Bangsamoro Education, Inc (NABEI) in the validation program.
  
In a 2-hour Manila meeting between officials of DepEd and NABEI, Education Sec. Br. Armin Luistro ordered Josefina Lacuna, Chief of Office on Madrasah Education (OME) Central Office, to conduct validation visit to private madaris on the first week of January 2015 which will cover two school years (2013-2014 and 2014-2015) and submit validation reports to the DepEd Finance Department on the second week of February for immediate facilitation.

Dr. Ombra Imam, NABEI President in his opening statement sought the attention of DepEd key officials on the status of pending DepEd subsidy for private madaris covering two school years.  He lamented that due to non-release of DepEd subsidy, some madaris incurred liabilities from paying their teachers’ allowances, while more teachers suffered delayed and underpaid salaries and other benefits.

Having learned the financial woes of madaris teachers brought up by NABEI, Francisco Varela, Undersecretary for Finance and Administration, committed to fast track the review of validation documents and facilitate the release of two years of madrasah financial assistance within February or first week of March 2015.

DepEd Order No. 81 s. 2007 provides annual financial assistance amounting to Five Thousand Pesos per pupil to private madaris that implement Standard Madrasah Curriculum pursuant to DepEd Order 51 s. 2005.  Recipient madaris shall allocate 80 percent of the assistance for payment of teachers of non-Arabic subjects and 20 percent for improvement of school facilities. Based on DepEd Order No. 81 guidelines, schedules for validation and release of subsidy shall be done annually by DepEd-OME before the end of December of current school year.

To date, there are 103 madaris throughout the country that are recipients of financial support from DepEd.

To further improve the system of DepEd madaris program, Sec. Luistro also instructed OME chief to conduct validation visit within the month of June starting next school year to ensure early release of financial assistance by August 2015.

 On their part, NABEI officials guaranteed readiness of their member-schools to receive DepEd validators by June of next year.

Meanwhile, Dr. Imam, who is also the founding director of Ibn Taimiyah Foundation Academy (ITFA), brought up the verbal commitment of Br. Luistro during the 1st National Bangsamoro Education Congress (NBEC) to include NABEI in the DepEd validations.  

During the recent education congress, where Luistro served as Keynote Speaker, more than a hundred school administrators passed three resolutions to institutionalized partnership between DepEd and NABEI.

Responding on the issue of partnership, Luistro advised Chief Lacuna in the presence of Usec. Varela and Usec Dina Ocampo for inclusion of NABEI in validation visits to start January 2015.

According to the DepEd Chief, NABEI participation is a way of knowing the pulse of madaris. Dr. Imam said this would serve as an initial step towards more strengthened DepEd-NABEI partnerships.

Engr. Rashid Paca, a member of NABEI Board and President of Marawi-based Philippine Engineering and Agro-Indusrial College, explained that providing explicit or implicit authority by DepEd to the association would facilitate direct intervention by NABEI to private madaris, especially to those non-NABEI members, help strengthen the madaris sector, ensure their entitlement to annual assistance, and encourage others to participate in the madrasah program.

He added that this would be the case especially when the Bangsamoro government is put in place.

Another round of meeting between DepEd and NABEI will be called by the Education chief in January 2015 to facilitate NABEI collaboration with other potential organization, discuss education issues in preparation for Bangsamoro government, and other DepEd concerns with the association.

Relative to delayed release of Education Service Contracting (ESC) funds for ARMM private schools, NABEI also made a follow up with Sec. Luistro on the status of ESC payment which paved the way for immediate action by Usec. Varela.

In his text message to administrators of ESC schools in ARMM, Mr. Nestor Lemana, former Executive Director of Notre Dame Educational Association recognized the efforts of NABEI officials in meeting with Sec. Luistro that facilitated the release of ESC funds this week.

Officials of the association expressed thanks to Sec. Luistro, Usec. Varela and Usec Dina Ocampo for their continued support to private madaris and NABEI for addressing the perennial problem on delayed madrasah subsidies brought up by the organization.
After learning the successful meeting in Manila, many madaris administrators send text messages and phone calls expressing gratitude to NABEI for initiating direct engagement between DepEd and madaris that made a breakthrough. They expressed hope that DepEd would be true to its commitment.

Other madrasah administrators that composed NABEI delegation in the meeting were Sheikh Abdulkarim Garay of ITFA and Maguindanao Private Madaris Association, Mr. Repainal Gampong of Ibn Siena Integrated School and League Pilot Madaris, Ustadz Wahab T.H. Omar of Dar Al Uloom wal Hiqmah and Association for Bangsamoro Education Development, and Ustadz  Hussein Hadji Omar of As-Salihein Integrated School.

NABEI envisions to be the “think tank and prime mover of Muslim education in the Philippines”. It represents the voice of Muslim private schools in the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), the umbrella organization of all private schools in the country.

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1417-deped-nabei-meet-on-delayed-financial-assistance-for-private-madaris-other-issues

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.