The Bangsamoro government and several national education agencies have signed a memorandum of agreement to create the Bangsamoro Education Coordination Forum (BECF), an inter-agency platform aimed at improving alignment of policies and programmes affecting the autonomous region's education system.
Formalising cooperation to resolve long-standing gaps
The agreement, signed on 28 July, brings together the Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education and five national agencies: the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Professional Regulation Commission. The forum is intended to address a persistent disconnect between national-level targets and the specific needs and administrative arrangements of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
Under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, the region's education system is recognised as a subsystem within the wider Philippine education system. The creation of the BECF follows earlier work, including a technical working group for education established within the Philippine Congress–Bangsamoro Parliament Forum earlier this year.
“For too long, coordination between our agencies depended on goodwill. Today, we transform this mutual goodwill into a binding commitment,”
The remark was made by Abdulraof Macacua, the interim chief minister who is also serving as the Bangsamoro concurrent education minister, at the signing ceremony. He said the forum would create a lasting mechanism to set shared priorities, make collective decisions and ensure mutual accountability to the public.
Challenges the forum will confront
Officials say the forum is needed because questions remain unresolved about how national policy and BARMM programmes should operate in practice. Difficult issues include routes for funding, eligibility for programmes and the division of jurisdictional responsibilities between national agencies and the Bangsamoro ministry.
Those challenges span the full education spectrum, from early childhood development to higher and technical education. The new coordinating body will be expected to develop clearer arrangements so that pupils and students in BARMM can access services and benefits without administrative obstacles.
- Purpose: to provide a permanent, binding platform for shared decision-making on education in BARMM.
- Membership: Bangsamoro Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education plus four national agencies.
- Key issues: funding channels, eligibility rules and agency jurisdiction across education subsectors.
Who is in the forum
| Bangsamoro | National agencies |
|---|---|
| Ministry of Basic, Higher, and Technical Education | Department of Education |
| Commission on Higher Education | |
| Technical Education and Skills Development Authority | |
| Professional Regulation Commission |
Participants hope the BECF will make cooperation less dependent on informal goodwill and more rooted in agreed procedures and accountability. The forum is a practical response to the complex governance arrangements created by the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which sought to devolve powers while keeping the education system within the national framework.
Formally establishing the forum is an initial step; the effectiveness of the BECF will depend on its ability to translate agreements into operational guidance and to resolve the technical questions that have impeded the delivery of education services in BARMM. Stakeholders will now be watching for concrete outputs, such as clarified funding routes and agreed eligibility rules that will enable pupils, teachers and institutions in the region to benefit from coherent national and regional programmes.
Creation of the BECF comes months after the congressional–parliamentary technical working group addressed education, signalling continued institutional effort to close policy gaps that have persisted in the region. For parents and pupils in BARMM, improved coordination promises a clearer pathway to the resources and oversight that underpin quality education.
