Trauma bars Marawi kids from enrolling

Nearly 100 students of Marawi City may have escaped the ongoing conflict there, but they are still traumatized by the violence days after they moved to Cebu City.

Minang A. Mananggis, coordinator of the Madrasah Education Program in the Cebu City Division of the Department of Education (DepEd), said the students have not yet enrolled due to their trauma.

“We talked to their parents and some of the children still cry. We want them to undergo stress debriefing,” Mananggis said.

Leah Quintana, information officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7), said the Department of Health (DOH) can conduct stress debriefing but their office can also extend assistance to those affected students.

Some students also did not pursue their enrollment since they have difficulty in understanding the Visayan language, Mananggis said.

As of yesterday, there were 58 transferees from Marawi City who were enrolled in Cebu City.

Their office recorded over 1,000 Muslim learners in Cebu City for this school year.

But their office is expecting more transferees in the coming days especially from Lanao province and nearby areas of Marawi City.

“Our enrollment is extended until July and these students are welcome if they want to enroll here,” Mananggis said.

DepEd earlier said the Marawi City students can still enroll even without documents.

Two regular Madrasah teachers Alaina Macabato and Salma Abdulla are still on leave.

Mananggis said they are giving the two teachers enough time to recover from being stranded in Marawi for more than a week.

While Macabato and Abdulla are already in Cebu, there are still 18 Madrasah contractual teachers from Marawi City that have not yet returned to Cebu City.

“We cannot contact them and their phones were out of reach. Maybe they don’t have signals or their phones were low on power,” Mananggis said.