House vows to allot P100 M for Islamic schools

The House of Representatives appropriations committee chairman assured the Muslim community yesterday that the government will earmark P100 million of the 2006 budget "to support a standard curriculum for Islamic schools" or madrasahs.

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said the proposed allocation for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is a "first in history," and is included in the P119-billion budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) for next year.

Andaya made this assurance as the country’s Muslim minority celebrated Hariraya Puasa, the feast of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The money will be used to develop, produce and distribute textbooks and other instructional materials for madrasahs, the curriculum of which is being standardized by DepEd," Andaya said.

The funds needed to train teachers in English, Arabic and Islamic theology will also be taken from the P100 million set aside for the madrasahs, he said.

"Madrasahs fuse Islamic teachings with regular education curricula," Andaya said. "While they antedate (the country’s) public schools, the DepEd brief on madrasahs did not, however, indicate how many there are today."

Anticipating criticisms that Islamic schools are hotbeds for terrorism, Andaya calls such criticism "far-fetched."

The madrasahs, he said, will "be teaching (students about Dr. Jose) Rizal, (Gen. Andres) Bonifacio and Sultan Kudarat — and not (Osama) bin Laden. That stereotype will not happen here. The standardized curriculum will see to it."

Andaya said the "declining school performance" of elementary and high school students in the ARMM had prodded DepEd to ask for funding for programs that will improve education in the region and other Muslim enclaves.

ARMM scored the lowest among all the regions when DepEd conducted a national achievement test covering the subjects English, Math and Science for sixth-grade and fourth-year high school students.

At 60 percent, the functional literacy of ARMM students is the lowest in the country. These data were transmitted to Andaya in a DepEd report to the House appropriations committee.

In 2003, only one in four 13 to 16 year-old youths in ARMM who should be in high school are actually enrolled, while only eight of every 10 children who ought to be in elementary are enrolled.

Because the ARMM is an autonomous region, the budget for basic education there is included in the appropriations for the ARMM local government, not the DepEd allocation. ARMM covers the provinces of Maguindanao, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and Lanao del Sur.

ARMM education department has a proposed budget of only P3.6 million — insufficient to meet the needs of the region’s 600,000 students. — Delon Porcalla