Officers and Staff of BDA ZamBas

The officers and staff of the Regional Management Office (RMO) of Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) at Zamboanga City and Basilan (ZamBas) expressed gratitude to the Department of Education (DepEd) for recognizing the Tahderiyyah Curriculum Program (TCP) currently implemented by the BDA across its seven (7) regions.

This program is implemented in partnership with United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and supported by the Australian Aid for International Development (AusAID).

“One of the challenges of BDA in the implementation of this program then was the non-recognition of DepEd which prevented the parents to enroll their children in this program. Since most of the public and private primary schools did not accept the Tahderiyyah graduates, some of the children retained as pre-schoolers in ZamBas Region”, said Tony Sakkalahul, Regional Manager of BDA ZamBas.

He added that “with this challenge encountered in all BDA regions, the BDA-Central Management Office together with the UNICEF, had a dialogue with the DepEd ARMM for the recognition of the said program however, it did not draw concrete output immediately”.

“Another round of dialogue was held at the DepEd National office and by this time and it bore fruitful output. After a year, DepEd issued a Memorandum Order No. 36, series of 2013, recognizing the Tahderiyyah Curriculum Program”, Manager Sakkalahul continued.

“This development has already been announced to the Tahderiyyah Teachers during the 3^rd Phase Training of Teachers and Development Catalyst on Tahderriyah and also during the commencement exercises at the Tahderiyyah sites. They were all happy about the news and encouraged to send their children to this program”, Manager Sakkalahul ended./Tony D. Sakkalahul-Regional Manager, BDA ZamBas