Mudarrisin should also mark teachers’ day
Editorial
The Month of September or October is the National Teachers’ Month. It is during this month also that the World Teachers’ Day is celebrated all over the globe.It is matter of curiosity that as all educators and school teachers in the Philippines are giving importance to the occasion, the Arabic and Islamic teachers called Mudarrisin (erroneously called Ustadjes or Ustadjahs) in the Arabic and Islamic schools called Madaris do not participate in the commemoration.
Is it because, the government education agencies like the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) do not regard the Arabic and Islamic schools as part of the education system of the country contrary to the provision of the Constitution that makes the Muslim culture part of the system?
Or, is it because the Mudarrisin themselves do not like to participate in the global celebration as they still consider the madrasah as different from the regular institutions of learning and is outside therefore the system?
Whatever the reason is, education leaders should do something to incorporate the madaris in marking such important global occasion as Teachers’ Day. The indifference, if I may call it, is not good to national unity and the aspiration for lasting peace. For it is only in the Philippines that a group of teachers have no regard in the global activity.
And it is only in the Philippines that many madaris are still operating on their own having no government recognition and therefore are isolated from the mainstream.
Is it because, the government education agencies like the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) do not regard the Arabic and Islamic schools as part of the education system of the country contrary to the provision of the Constitution that makes the Muslim culture part of the system?
Or, is it because the Mudarrisin themselves do not like to participate in the global celebration as they still consider the madrasah as different from the regular institutions of learning and is outside therefore the system?
Whatever the reason is, education leaders should do something to incorporate the madaris in marking such important global occasion as Teachers’ Day. The indifference, if I may call it, is not good to national unity and the aspiration for lasting peace. For it is only in the Philippines that a group of teachers have no regard in the global activity.
And it is only in the Philippines that many madaris are still operating on their own having no government recognition and therefore are isolated from the mainstream.
