Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, Committee on Finance, Budget and ManagementNow
Parliament Bill No. 142
In committeeAn Act Strengthening the Madaris Educational System in the Bangsamoro Region and Providing Assistance Through the Establishment of the Madaris Education Fund Assistance, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes
Filed
First Reading
Referred to the Committee on Basic, Higher, and Technical Education, Committee on Finance, Budget and ManagementNow
Under committee study or floor debate. Amendments are still possible, and this is the stage where public input carries the most weight.
What this measure does
This sets up a Madaris Education Fund Assistance — a fund for private Islamic schools covering infrastructure, scholarships, teacher development and accreditation.
The assistance is awarded against criteria the bill lists: continuous teacher training, infrastructure facilities, scholarship grants, the socio-economic needs of students with priority to the poorest, the school’s overall performance, and the academic qualifications and financial needs of both students and teachers.
What the fund pays for is set out as 10 items: a nutrition and feeding program for young children; classroom facilities down to desks, tables and chalkboards; textbook assistance at a ratio of one book per student per subject; an in-service training fund for teachers; scholarship grants to children of teachers; scholarship grants to qualified students; funding for training and seminars for Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education teachers; an increase in ALIVE teachers’ salaries; funding for madaris registration and accreditation; and madrasah infrastructure development.
MBHTE issues the rules, in coordination with other agencies.
Why it was proposed
The policy section recognizes the complementary role of private educational institutions and the contribution madaris make to educating the region’s children, and commits to a fund system for their infrastructure, scholarships, teacher development and accreditation, with subsidies aimed particularly at the underprivileged. It also commits the government to encouraging non-formal, informal and indigenous learning systems.
The underlying problem is the same one Bills 167 and 168 address: madaris teach a large share of Bangsamoro children, sit outside the public funding system, and have no standing route to regional money.
Who it affects
- Madaris across the region, for infrastructure, textbooks, classroom furniture and accreditation costs.
- ALIVE teachers — Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education — who would receive training funds and a salary increase.
- Teachers in madaris generally, through an in-service training fund and scholarships for their children.
- Students, through scholarships, textbooks at one book per subject, and a feeding program for the young ones.
- MBHTE’s Bureau of Madaris, which would administer the fund out of its own current appropriation.
Who would implement it
- Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE), which issues the rules
- MBHTE Bureau of Madaris, against whose current appropriations the fund is charged
Funding
Carries an appropriation. ₱10,000,000 for initial implementation, provided in the Bangsamoro Appropriation Act and charged under the current appropriations of the MBHTE Bureau of Madaris. It is one of the few bills in this group to carry a figure at all — and it is a small one against a list of 10 funded items that includes region-wide infrastructure development, one textbook per student per subject, and a salary increase for a whole category of teachers.
What changes if it becomes law
- A standing fund exists for madaris, covering infrastructure, textbooks, training, scholarships and accreditation.
- ALIVE teachers get a training fund and a salary increase.
- Textbook assistance is set at a ratio of 1 book per student per subject.
- Children of madrasah teachers become eligible for scholarships.
- The cost of madaris registration and accreditation is funded.
- ₱10 million is charged against the Bureau of Madaris’ current appropriations.
Raised during deliberations
No published record of the debate on this measure. Parliament’s journals cover sittings up to March 2023 only, and no committee report on it has been published.
What to notice
Read this next to Bills 167 and 168 and the picture changes. Three separate bills in this Parliament propose to fund madrasah education: this one from MPs Matalam, Ismael and Alih, Bill 167 from MPs Ampatuan and Mitmug, and Bill 168 from MP Antao. All three were filed within four months of each other in 2023. Bill 167 and this bill overlap substantially — both fund student assistance, teacher support, classroom facilities and textbooks — and their forms of assistance are close enough to read as variations on one draft. Whether they are consolidated is a decision for the committee, and Parliament’s index shows all three sitting in the Committee on Basic, Higher and Technical Education or with Finance alongside it.
The ₱10 million is the number to weigh. It is charged not as new money but against the Bureau of Madaris’ existing appropriations, and it is asked to cover 10 categories including madrasah infrastructure development region-wide and a salary increase for ALIVE teachers. Either the figure is a token first tranche or the list is aspirational; the bill does not say which.
The most concrete thing in it is the textbook ratio. One book per student per subject sounds unremarkable until you have been in a classroom where a book is shared between four children, which in this region is not a rare sight.
Sources