Despite Taytay being second in highest population of Rizal’s Muslim Learners, Division Focal Person on Madrasah Minerva David called out secondary schools in the municipality for still failing to implement the program that aims to nurture Islamic Culture.
In an interview, David explained that she aims to build secondary Madrasah sessions in Taytay to cope up with the Madrasah elementary graduates from Rosario Ocampo Elementary School in the same municipality.
“Nasaan na yung bata nila sa secondary tas wala pong secondary dito sa Taytay dapat nasusundan kasi mayroon naman tayong curriculum eh,” David stressed.
According to the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) enrollment records, 164 students are having Madrasah classes in the municipality with 36 in Grade five with highest number of enrollees and 10 in Grade one with the least number of attendees.
Since only three high schools caters MADRASAH in Rizal despite with the 10 elementary schools having the sessions, the division plans to apply secondary Madrasah classes in Rizal in municipalities of Binangonan, Tanay and Taytay.
“Marami raw Muslims sa Casimiro. As the division coordinator, I am appealing to the district supervisors of Tanay, Taytay, Binangonan, to put up secondary classes kasi for now tatlo lang ang nakasunod,” David pointed out.
Furthermore, she explained that a public school is mandated to put up ALIVE classes when it reaches 17 Muslim students and Department of Education (DepEd) can sue a school if it refuses to comply.
“Kapag nalaman ng DepEd, pwedeng kasuhan ang paaralan kasi isa ito sa access eh. Quality yan, yung mga ating major final output sa DepEd na bahagi ng key results area.” the MADRASAH focal person said.
Meanwhile, the coordinator explained Madrasah’s significance as a comprehensive program in public and private schools that seeks to provide appropriate and relevant educational opportunities within the context of Muslim culture, customs, traditions and interests through the integration of ALIVE.
“Lahat ng mga Muslim ayaw ng kaguluhan, patayan, giyera. Lumilipat ng iba’t ibang lugar and so what’s happening is that pag nag-asawa na sila sa mga lugar kung saan sila nagmigrate yung susunod na henerasyon hindi na natuturuan ng kanilang Arabic Language and Islamic Values,” David stated.
On the contrary, David expresses Madrasah’s outlet for improvements that includes teacher’s salary and the intensive Madrasah classes in the Autonomous Region on Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) that is different from the other regions.
“Siguro yung sa improvements, ang kailangan nila ay to have an increase in salary 6,000 in a month. I do not think it is enough and motivating enough for our teachers so yun ang hiling nila na somehow madagdagan nga yung kanilang salary,” she added.
THE ECHOES 