In the week of January 20-24, 2015, team members of Cartwheel Foundation, Inc. (CFI) again visited Zamboanga to conduct training sessions with partner teachers, and culture and values profiling with Bajau community members of Barangay Mampang as participants.

CFI Education Coordinator Bricks Sintaon facilitated the teachers’ training sessions at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU). Relinda Montimor and Sariba Abdulbasit, Bajau teachers of CFI’s Angiskul ma Bangka (AMB) or “Classes in Bancas” Early Childhood Education program, were the main attendees. They learned about the basics of Indigenous Peoples’ Education (IPEd), classroom management, and indigenous instructional materials development.

CFI Programs Officer Celia Jurado led the culture and values profiling workshop where at least 30 community members comprised of learners’ parents and other elders gathered in their common area at Mampang. Many of them showed much willingness to share what they knew and still practiced from their unique culture as indigenous Bajau.
Fatima Ahiyal of CFI’s implementing partner, ADZU-Center for Community Extension Services (CCES), helped in translating to Tausug the discussion points of CFI team members. All Bajau participants were responsive and more than once expressed their appreciation for the AMB Program currently implemented in their area.

Improvement in teachers’ confidence

CFI team members were happy to report the very stark difference between the teachers’ confidence from a few months ago and how they presented themselves this January. No longer shy, the teachers were very active in both the training sessions and community workshops.

One memorable session was when they viewed a short documentary that featured Bajau families who migrated to Lucena, Quezon. They were brought to tears seeing the plight of some of their people, having to flee their original homeland for fear of violent attacks from outside groups.

The teachers also expressed joy in knowing more about the many other ethnic groups around the Philippines and discovering how the Bajau are alike yet also different in countless interesting ways. They were very eager to learn about the Department of Education (DepEd) Orders related to the practice of IPEd: the necessary standards that have to be met and how exactly to go about it.

Enthusiasm among community members

Bajau community members who attended the workshops were at once very engaging and willing to participate. Even as the profiling took two whole days to complete, very few among them excused themselves in between. Their openness to interacting with the CFI and ADZU-CCES team members was very apparent as they shared their opinions and told stories about their culture, without hesitation.

The AMB learners’ parents were given special commendation for keeping their commitment of helping each other out to be able to sustain the feeding component of the program. Also worth noting is the manner by which they regard the teachers with respect. The encouragement they give their children to consistently go to class is reflected in the attendance records: out of 96 learners in total, only two to three are absent per school day.

Teacher Relinda handles two sets of two-hour classes in the morning, with children ages 3-5 years old as students. Teacher Sariba is in charge of the afternoon classes where the older kids attend.