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COTABATO CITY (MindaNews / 18 November) – The newly hired teachers, principals and even nurses in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) were chosen under the principle of good governance and passed the qualifications and requirements, Mohagher Iqbal, Minister of Basic, Higher and Technical Education of BARMM said.
No single job item was sold to the highest bidder among the applicants unlike in the past, Iqbal told 396 teaching and non-teaching personnel who took their oath of office before him on Thursday at the Shariff Kabunsuan Cultural Center here.
“There are so many reports that hiring of teachers involved money, reaching as high as P150,000 per item. Now, you are living witnesses that no single centavo was asked from you during the hiring process,” he told the new teachers and school heads in the vernacular.
He asked the teachers to report to him if there are education officials that demand money in exchange for positions at the ministry.
In his speech Iqbal said that with the 2,399 teachers they had hired since he headed the ministry, 100,000 pesos for each job item will add up to P239 million pesos.
“Not even a single centavo, you all (those who took oath) will be the living witnesses, we have a Muslim belief that the curse of God is upon the one who offers a bribe and the one who takes it,” he said.
He said that not all applicants could be accommodated.
“You are happy, others are not. Much as we want all applicants to be accommodated, we cannot do it due to lack of resources, but don’t worry, our hiring is continuing,” he added.
Samina Usman Daud was one of the teachers who took an oath on Thursday at the regional government center.
Daud, 26, has been a volunteer teacher in Buldon, Maguindanao for the last three years. She passed the 2019 licensure examination for teachers, applied in the same year but waited until Thursday before becoming a regular teacher.
“Finally I am now regular teacher 1. It’s worth the wait,” she said in the vernacular.
“I am very much happy kasama ng aking pamilya (together with my family) because I am not expecting that this will happen. There are many applicants, nasa 1,000 plus, nasa 200 plus lang ang pumasa at isa ako doon (around 1,000 plus, only around 200 plus passed and I was one one of them),” she added.
She vowed to enliven moral governance values to be fair to every Bangsamoro child with differences in beliefs and traditions.
Daud, an Iranun, will be assigned in North Upi, Maguidanao, a predominantly Teduray community.
She said she hopes that her being an English major would help children in the Bangsamoro attain better lives as adults and professionals.
Baican Macalangan, 60, who will be retiring in a few years, said she was so delighted that she became a full-fledged principal of Jose Abad Santos Elementary School in Malabang, Lanao del Sur.
Macalangan became a head teacher in 2014 and applied to become a full-fledged principal, a position she waited for eight years to achieve.
BARMM’s education ministry also hired Islamic Studies and Arabic Language teachers to be its partners in promoting moral values and religious education among the Bangsamoro youth. (Ferdinandh Cabrera/MindaNews)
