JMIF is now in the right track

The management of Jamiatu Marawi Al-Islamia Foundation (JMIF) is now threading the right track towards its aspiration for academic excellence though they should have done it long time ago.

Just a few days ago, Aleem Mochtar Bato, JMIF basic education principal, told me there was a re-organizational development in his school. Later, School president Sultan Nasser D. Sampaco had confirmed the development in a text message. He also said that in just a week, academic improvement had already been felt in the school.

I believe the revamp was made as a measure to prevent the deteriorating academic standard of the school which was somehow the reason for its decreasing student population.

In 2010, when I was still college dean at JMIF, people had been hitting the school left and right accusing it to be deviating from Islam which is its rallying banner and for which Arab funders had extended so much financial help.

Concerns such as the school becoming un-Islamic with students taught of un-Islamic activities despite its being a sectarian Islamic school had been aired over radio frequency groups which put the blame to some higher school officials

As dean, too, students came to me reporting a few of their teachers (whom I learned later to be the same school officials) requiring them just to pay P500.00 or more in lieu of a required academic project like thesis writing and others, so that I did not wonder anymore if there were only a few copies of students’ thesis writings found in the library.

Also, it is no longer a secret that some teachers close to these academic top ranking officials were taking advantage of their positions to advance if not abuse their students sexually, or otherwise. In fact, some teachers married their students.

Alerted of the issues, the school management headed by School President Sampaco and Aleem Zainodden Bato, executive Vice President and VP for Arabic and Islamic Studies, the lead guardian of Islamic values, asked me to look for a true academician, one who holds a doctorate in education, to reform the academic standard of the school.

I did look for the needed academician and found one. They asked me to talk to him and let him submit CV which I did and their requirement complied.

To my surprise, the school management said there was no reason to revamp that present set-up at the moment for the very school official at issue had not done something wrong —  what a shallow reasoning!

Now that the revamp has finally been done, putting the right persons in the right places, JMIF is now threading the right academic track.

I feel happy for the school, especially for its students. And I don’t see any reason why JMIF could not catch up with its peers in the academe.

I congratulate the JMIF management for having waken up to the reality.

RANAO STAR