BARMM to grant technical vocational scholarship to 7,000 beneficiaries

Cotabato City (July 2, 2020) – At least 7,000 scholars are targeted to be beneficiaries of the Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education’s (MBHTE) scholarship program for Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

The scholarship package includes Skills Training, Entrepreneurship Training, Values Transformation Training, National Assessment, and a Training Support Fund of Php100.00 per day per student.

The program is designed to increase the access to TVET especially at the community level, in support to the call for ‘Moral Governance’; to respond to the 12-point agenda of the BARMM which includes addressing the pressing challenges on education and poverty; and to provide meaningful assistance to the beneficiaries through collaborative governance.

MBHTE Minister and Member of Parliament Mohagher Iqbal said the technical skills training and educational program is also part of the implementation of the normalization process contained in the Annex on Normalization of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

“This [TVET] is ultimately inclined to the needs of respected communities with great emphasis to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Indigenous People, and marginalized sectors of the society,” Iqbal added.

Applicants, aged from 20-60 years old, are qualified to enroll for the scholarship program as long as they are currently not recipients of other government scholarships, and are not in education or training.

Iqbal emphasized that “Bangsamoro people, including non-Muslims, are welcome to apply as long as they are residents of the regional provinces of BARMM, including the 63 barangays (in North Cotabato).”

Iqbal also stressed that the scholarship program is a first of its kind in the region as there was no regional scholarship fund from the former ARMM.

Faida Latip Sr., specialist of the MBHTE- Technical Education and Skills Development (TESD), said: “We are going to create a ministry-led Regional Scholarship Monitoring Team from our provincial office to capacitate the implementing team, and monitor our field operations for the scholarship.”

MBHTE-TESD is still finalizing the process on how to apply for the said scholarship program.

Meanwhile, to ensure the efficiency of government resources and avoid duplication of efforts for the implementation of the program, MBHTE has partnered with the BARMM’s Ministry of Trade, Investments and Tourism (MTIT), Ministry of Interior and Local Government (MILG), Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Agrarian Reform (MAFAR), Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE), Bureau of Public Information (BPI), Local Government Units of BARMM’s five provinces, Bangsamoro Development Authority (BDA),and with Islamic Relief Worldwide – Philippines. (Bureau of Public Information/File photo from MBHTE-TESD)