Written by: Mildred Y.
Visual by: Ela C.
Mindanao is the second largest island located at the Southern part of the Philippine archipelago, with Islam being its predominant culture. The Islamic religion was first introduced in Mindanao 200 years before the European colonial period by Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf, Southern India and other parts of the Malay archipelago. Since then, many of these Filipino Muslims identify themselves as Bangsamoro or Moro Muslims.
There has been a long-term historical trend that started in the 1900s which caused the Moros to be displaced from their traditional Moro territories. From the American colonial authorities importing homesteaders from the Northern Islands to developments of large-scale plantations for commercial exportation. This resulted in the northern Catholic Filipinos outnumbering the Moros, leading to land disputes, banning of the Moros language in education and more. As of November 2018, there are an estimated 80,439 people who are displaced in Mindanao due to the on-going conflict between the government security forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The struggle to provide proper education for children in the minority is a consequence of the complex environment in Muslim Mindanao. According to DFAT and a World Bank study in 2014, the education deficit in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is so serious that only one in ten students completes high school. Instead of schooling, many of these children are child soldiers fighting for different conflict groups in Mindanao. Moreover, the poor education system in Mindanao is an outcome of funding neglect from the government, poor institutional arrangements, absent reliable data and more. In 2015, there was a revelation that many communities did not even have schools and if they did, there were multiple unqualified teachers.
In recent years however, more light has been shed to this issue and there have been projects and initiatives to help these youths in Mindanao seek education. Back in 2006, The Education Quality and Access for Learning and Livelihood Skills Project, Phase 2 (EQuALLS2), an intervention by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that is implemented in three Mindanao regions, was launched. Their aim, to increase access to quality education and livelihood skills in the Philippines, more specifically in poverty and conflict-affected areas of Mindanao. Working within Mindanao’s fragile communities also means that there are risks of various threats that can negatively impact the project, staff members and beneficiaries. There have been incidents of explosions and bombings in Zamboanga and Cotabato, two cities in Mindanao where field offices of this project were located and in 2011, 13 members of the Moro National Liberation Front and two soldiers were allegedly killed on a EQuALLS2 school construction site in Sulu.
In spite of these threats and violence, there have been many positive outcomes from this initiative by USAID. More than 70,000 out-of-school youth managed to participate in alternative basic education courses which resulted in a marked increase in the number of youth passing the high school equivalency exam. Additionally, 161 public school classrooms and 540 community learning centers have either been renovated or newly constructed to house more than 425,000 elementary students and youths across the 1,000 conflict-affected communities in Mindanao.
Works Cited
Implementing Education and Youth Development Programming in the Fragile Context of Mindanao, Philippines. https://www.edc.org/sites/default/files/EDC-Education-Fragility-Series-Mindanao-Philippines.pdf. PDF File. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.
“Moro Muslims - Minority Rights Group.” Minority Rights Group, 5 Feb. 2021, minorityrights.org/minorities/moro-muslims/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.
“Relearning Islamic History in the Philippines - BusinessWorld Online.” BusinessWorld Online, 13 June 2018, www.bworldonline.com/relearning-islamic-history-in-the-philippines/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.
“Rebuilding Education and Peace in Mindanao - Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre.” Devpolicy Blog from the Development Policy Centre, 19 Sept. 2017, devpolicy.org/rebuilding-education-peace-mindanao-20170920/. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.