A child works for education


Argel Kiawan, 14 and an incoming second-year high-school student, does some spade work outside the Magallanes Elementary School, which pays him 100 pesos a day. Kiawan says his family is poor so he needs to find work for his lunch money and daily school allowance. That a minor like him was hired by a public school to do manual labor likewise underscores the problem of child labor in Davao City and the flagrant violation even by government officials of the country's child-labor laws. Click for larger photo (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

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USAID supports comprehensive Islamic education in Mindanao


A Moro child in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in one of the schools being supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agency recently conducted a one-week training class for ustadzes (Islamic teachers) to integrate English, science, and math into the basic Islamic and Arabic teaching in madrasahs. At a ceremony to mark the training, ARMM Department of Education Undersecretary Manaros Boransing said that implementing the Revised Basic Education Curriculum is important to develop future Moro leaders who are deeply rooted in their Islamic faith while being fully attune to developments in the Philippines and the global community. (US Embassy photo)

Continue ReadingUSAID supports comprehensive Islamic education in Mindanao