DepEd gears for education services in ARMM

The Department of Education created Task Force ARMM to Economic Recovery and Development to strengthen and ensure smooth coordination with other government agencies.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro appointed Undersecretaries Francisco Varela and Rizalino Rivera as co-chairs of the task force. Its members were culled from DepEd's planning service, the bureaus of elementary and secondary education, finance and administration, as well as alternative learning systems.

"We want to ensure that we have a complete range of services for our learners in the autonomous region and we will do it in full cooperation with other government agencies," added Luistro.

Earlier, a national transition team was created by the government headed by the Department of Interior and Local Government in preparation for the appointment and installation of officers-in-charge in ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao). The transition team is composed of DepEd, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development which are the key government agencies identified with providing basic services.

The ARMM economic recovery and development initiative is also called "ARMM Mini Marshall Plan," and is aimed at addressing gaps in basic services for the next 21 months of transition.

One of the responsibilities of the DepEd task force is to facilitate and guide the conduct of rapid validation of education data in ARMM including the inventory of personnel and physical facilities in coordination with DepEd-ARMM.

The activity is part of the thrust of the transition team to clean up data across all agencies to prepare the entire ARMM bureaucracy for the appointment of the OICs. (PNA)