COTABATO CITY, Philippines?Five children in traditional Maguindanaon garb swayed to the sound of kulintang (traditional Muslim musical instrument), their hands swinging and heads kept low.

The performance was for some 300 teachers and administrators of the Department of Education (DepEd) in the audience during the culmination of the Australian Agency for International Development's Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) Project here on November 16.

"These children are the product of our toil. We are proud to see them perform our traditional dance, just as we taught them to be proud of our culture and traditions," cheered teacher Nihma Unda.

D'Arci Walsh, Beam project director, announced the 12-month extension of the BEAM project in ARMM but did not cite the specific amount of assistance during that period.

"We hope that the increases achieved to date will be the incentive needed to maintain the effort and continue the improvement...with the special 12-month program from AusAID," he said.

The ceremony capped seven years of implementing the BEAM project in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Region 11 and 12. The project reached out to some 35,000 pupils and over 53,000 teachers in over 200 schools.

Since 2002, the Australian government has provided A$53.4 million (P2 billion) to the Philippines through the DepEd to upgrade basic education in the three regions in Mindanao where literacy and academic competency have been dismally low.

In its project report, DepEd acknowledged that because of the BEAM project, student learning outcomes in ARMM (measured in mean percentage scores) have increased by 24 per cent in elementary school and 15 per cent in high school. "The imperatives of increased student's performance showed that it is going up and almost near the mastery performance level of at least 75 percent," the report noted.

A main thrust of the BEAM project is to develop, through basic education, critical thinking among learners and inculcate a sense of pride and history for culture and history.

"Initiatives for remote and disadvantaged communities and for Muslim and indigenous children have resulted in vast improvement in the participation and retention rates of these children," Walsh, BEAM project director, said.

Besides the production of learning materials used by teachers and administrators, AusAid also funded the construction of a planning and materials development center with complete facilities such as computers with Internet access and storage rooms.

ARMM Executive Secretary Jim Sampulna led the inauguration of the new building together with officials of AusAID and DepEd at the ARMM regional government complex on Monday.

"We cannot thank the Australians enough for all this support they are giving ARMM. We all know that education is the foundation for a peaceful and progressive society, and this project contributes significantly to attaining that," he said.

The center is a first in the country, according to Margie Pendulat, materials development manager, said. "Now we can ensure that all materials we give out to children are top quality and were produced through rigorous research and evaluation," she said.

One of the nagging problems in Philippine education is the poor quality of textbooks used in elementary and high school education.

Among the best practices cited for the BEAM project are the development of human resource information system in DepEd, institutionalization of School Improvement Plan, training of teachers, reading programs, and the institutionalization of the Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (Alive) curriculum and indigenous peoples education.

The DepEd has adopted as a national program several project components initiated by BEAM such as the Alive curriculum and IP education.