DAVAO CITY—Volunteer teachers Johaira Ali, Musarafah Ebrahim and Sandra Mustapha gingerly await the appointment papers on their plantilla teaching posts in Maguindanao, and wait with bated breath as their turn comes nearer in the queue.
All excited, but for the new teachers, the job was not new, having volunteered for several months already in public schools, mostly functioning as teacher aides or replacement teachers for absent teachers.
“I’m excited to be finally appointed by the ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao] Department of Education [DepEd] because I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Ali said.
Beside her was Ebrahim, a teacher who did not hide her own excitement.
“I’m happy to be here,” she said. “I’ve always found joy in teaching, and I feel like this is truly the job for me.”
Ali and Ebrahim were among the 75 new teachers who were called on January 15 to sign their appointment papers and deployment orders in front of ARMM Regional Gov. Mujiv Hataman and newly installed Regional Education Secretary Rasol Mitmug Jr.
The DepED-ARMM was assigning the new teachers to the first and second districts of Maguindanao.
Since 2011 the ARMM has demonstrated its capacity to correct historical negative stereotypes about self-government for Filipino Muslims and cultural biases against their capability to self-govern.
Where before the ARMM reflected the ills obtaining in a poor region, from corruption, inefficiency and unprofessionalism in government and corporate service, to political patronage to warlordism, a caretaker government established that year showed a sharp turnaround, even denying corrupt politicians of their bloodline of several hundreds of millions of pesos stashed in government agencies.
The DepEd-ARMM was among them that turned in huge amounts in savings for government when the caretaker government pounced on big projects and wielded the whip against so-called ‘ghost employees,’ or persons receiving regular wages for nonexistent services and items.
Gov. Hataman himself noted the negative perception in the ARMM regarding appointments.
“I made sure to meet all of you today because I wanted to tell you personally that you are here not because of anyone’s endorsement, but because you are qualified,” he told the teachers during the mass signing of their appointments at the regional ARMM office in Cotabato City.
Hataman was the caretaker governor back then in 2011, assigned to oversee the affairs of the autonomous government after its top-ranking officials belonging to the Ampatuan clan were implicated and incarcerated in the November 2009 gruesome road murder of 52 persons, including 32 journalists and other media workers.
The journalists were tugged along the group of the rival Mangudadatu clan, who were en route to file the candidacy in the upcoming ARMM election.
Hataman ran in the recent ARMM election and won.
He said those appointed “are qualified and do not have those so-called backers.”
“A mechanism was made to ensure that appointees are well-distributed to schools in need. Along with the appointment order is a deployment order,” he said.
The new batch was hoped to contribute to the region’s literacy of 86.1 percent, based on the 2013 Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey. This figure improved the 2008 literacy level of 81.5 percent.
The DepEd-ARMM’s Mitmug said teachers ought to carry with them their crucial role as educators.
“Many of the youth here in the ARMM are hoping to receive quality education in our public-school system, and the backbone of good and quality education are good and qualified teachers,” Mitmug said.
He said, “You may encounter students of different beliefs, they may be Lumad, Christian or Moro, and it is important to remember that, despite these differences, we are rendering our service and commitment to one country.”
The ARMM government would be relying on the entire education sector, not only the newly appointed teachers, to counter the recruitment by terrorists on the Moro youths, with the battle for Marawi City reaching the peak of warnings about spreading disenchantment with government and recruiting young warriors to terrorist groups.
As volunteer teachers then, “I always remind my students to be critical and to refuse when someone recruits them into an unknown group with the promise of a better life.”
“I tell them that joining organizations that promote violence and terror will do nothing to help our community. It will only make our critical situation worse,” Ali said.
Sandria Mustapha, also a former volunteer teacher in Buluan, Maguindanao, said, “As a teacher, I believe we are catalysts for change. Once you’re a teacher, you’re changing the lives of children you’re handling.”
“Values-based education is important,” she said, adding “every day, we must remind the students of the values we hold dear as Muslims and the values we share with the rest of humanity.”
“It is our responsibility to constantly impress upon that terrorism is wrong,” she said. “I tell them not to join those kinds of groups because it will do nothing for their future. Failing to prioritize their education will only result to them being left behind as the rest of the community works toward peace and development.”
She also worked on her students’ social skills and sense of community. “It’s important to me that they learn how to socialize and interact with other people. I’ve encountered students who were very shy, but with a bit of encouragement, they’re now more open to their peers.”
Hataman said teachers were not employed “just to work and earn wages.”
“We are here to serve the youth, especially the next generation who will inherit the triumphs and failures of our own,” he added.
The ARMM earlier appointed 192 teachers deployed in Sulu earlier this month.
Mitmug said the DepEd-ARMM would fill all teaching positions in the nine school divisions in the region in the first quarter of this year. To date, the ARMM has 25,000 teaching and nonteaching personnel.
The region is composed of nine school divisions that include the divisions of Maguindanao I and II, Marawi City, Lanao del Sur I and II, Lamitan City, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.