The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society was one of the facilitators during the launching of the Korea Trust Fund-iTeach Project by the World Bank through the Korea Trust Fund for Economics and Peace-Building transitions implemented by the Save the Children and the CBCS with the assistance of the Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education last January 29, 2020 at Al-Nor Convention Hall.

The said project to be implemented in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao aims to improve the teacher effectiveness in developing conflict resolution, socio-emotional skills, literacy and numeracy of elementary graders through innovative school-based continuous professional development (CPD) interventions in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao region.

The launching of the KTF-iTeach project was attended by all elementary school principals/school heads in Maguindanao 1 and 2 including schools division superintendents and BARMM-MBHTE official, Chief of Staff Atty. Haron Meling and Director General Dr. Rahib Kudto. The activity aims to orient BARMM MBHTE officials and employees on the TEACEP project, introduce the KTF Pilot Project (KTF PP) to Maguindanao 1 and 2 officials and to begin the implementation of the KTF PP Coach Selection Program.

The activity was headed by Nicholas Tenazas from World Bank who led the introduction of the participants and the guests. It was preceded by a presentation on Teacher Effectiveness and Competencies Enhancement Project (TEACEP): Emerging design and updates given by Dr. Sachiko Kataoka, Senior Economist from World Bank. As she emphasized one strengthening teacher’s development is one of the priorities of designing the project.

The participants were actively involved during the introduction of the project and the workshop led by Nicholas Tenazas where most participants enthusiastically shared the ideas and experiences in teacher effectiveness and competencies. The project aims to find and select competent coaches that shall guide and mentor their co-teachers. It is anticipated that of 30 coaches per division, 25 coaches will provide coaching based in his/her own schools, while five coaches will be mobile coaches who will visit about five small schools. The project will select teachers based on the teacher data from the teacher database that the Ministry has recently developed with a support from Pathways. One of the objectives of the coaching process is to focus on literacy and peace education.

The activity was ended with the giving of certificates and a group photo with the teacher participants and the guests. The  launching of the project also aims to orient the principals about the project and to nominate coaches for their schools.