COTABATO CITY – The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) will extend up to 10 years the bankrolled Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), this time focusing only on the depressed communities in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with a total funding of $33 million.

ARMM Executive Secretary Naguib Sinarimbo confirmed the extension of the AusAID-BEAM program in the ARMM during the oath-taking rites here of lawyer Hamid Barra as secretary of the Department of Education in ARMM (DepEd-ARMM).

“He (Barra) will be playing a main role in the extended BEAM projects,” Sinarimbo told reporters.

According to Sinarimbo, the extended BEAM program seeks to intensify the AusAID intervention in addressing the sad statistics in ARMM on high dropout rates, elementary undergraduates, classroom shortage, and inappropriate teachers’ instructional skills and manuals.

He said the proposed education program extension covers only the elementary level. For high schools that are equally needing improvements, the ARMM government will have to conduct study and present proposals to prospect sponsors, he added.

As this developed, ARMM acting Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong discussed the extension of BEAM program in the ARMM alone in five to 10 years after they signed last January 27 a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) providing for a $5-million AusAID fund for the first year of the extended deal at the Australian Embassy in Manila, Sinarimbo said.

“The additional good news is that the AusAID agreed in principle on a new system through which the program will be extended from five to 10 years…with a total funding package of $33 million for the ARMM alone,” he said. (With report from Ali G. Macabalang)