DepEd, BJMP launch reform through education for inmates

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Education and the Caloocan City Bureau of Jail Management and Penology launched yesterday the Reform through Education project aimed to give inmates non-formal education they could utilize once released from prison.

“This is one of our many ways of letting the inmates understand that they could always reform and become productive members of society,” Caloocan City Jail warden Superintendent Lyndon Torres told The STAR.

The 70 inmates who qualified from the DepEd’s Alternative Learning System literacy class were provided free school materials by the local BJMP while Nimfa Hernaez, supervisor of ALS-Division of City Schools, pledged to provide the inmates’ uniforms through the assistance of Mayor Enrico Echiverri. “You’re fortunate, not because you are in jail, but because of this very beneficial opportunity being offered to you for free. Outside, you must pay for your education,” Hernaez told the inmates.

Chief Superintendent Serafin Barretto Jr., BJMP-Metro Manila chief, also urged prisoners to take advantage of the program assuring them that once they could hurdle their examinations it could help them “shorten their jail term.” “Don’t be hopeless, be educated. Don’t let poverty and of being a prisoner hinder your dreams for a better future,” Barretto told them.

Hernaez said the ALS literacy program offers elementary and secondary level of education and those who pass would be given certificates signed by DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus. – Pete Laude