The Bangsamoro Parliament approved on Tuesday the Bangsamoro Education Code, a measure that will provide for the establishment, management, and support of a complete and integrated quality education system in the Bangsamoro region.
By nominal voting, 61 Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) members voted in favor of the Cabinet Bill No. 70.
“As we continue our journey for peace and development, I don’t think there can be any landmark accomplishment that is worth celebrating than being able to establish the Bangsamoro Education Code,” BTA Speaker Atty. Pangalian Balindong said.
“It is about time that we have the kind of education we have always aspired for as Bangsamoro people. One that is comprehensive as it is integrated into an Education system in Bangsamoro,” he added.
BARMM Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal and Deputy Minority Leader Atty. Rasol Mitmug Jr. defended the proposed bill in the plenary.
MP Iqbal said that the education code “is an embodiment of our aspiration for the Bangsamoro children to have a bright future.”
The bill upholds the Ministry’s advocacy of ‘No Bangsamoro child shall be left behind’, which aspires to embody the hopes and ideals of the Bangsamoro people for an inclusive, culture-based, effective, and sustainable education framework.
In crafting the code, he said, “we want a version that includes significant provisions that will enhance the Bangsamoro education system, protect the well-being and rights of our teachers, non-teaching staff, parents, and learners.”
The Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education (MBHTE), under the code, is in charge of formulating, planning, implementing, and coordinating policies, plans, programs, and projects in all learning systems within the Bangsamoro region such as formal and non-formal as well as supervising all public and private educational institutions.
Minister Iqbal emphasized that the code will allow the Ministry to effectively govern the education system in the Bangsamoro and set the strategic direction towards a balanced, accessible, and high standard educational structure.
The education code was introduced to the plenary in October last year. It is one of the six priority codes the interim government needed to pass during the transition period.
The electoral, local government, and revenue codes are among the remaining codes on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which the BTA hopes to pass this year.
Source: Bangsamoro Transition Authority Parliament (Publication and Media Relations Division, BTA)
