ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Jun 05 (PIA) – The Provincial Government of Basilan through the leadership of Governor Jim Salliman will host the first ever Provincial Education Summit in Basilan on Tuesday, June 6 which aims to improve the quality of education among the schoolchildren across the island province.

Anchored on the theme "Collective Ownership, Resolving Learning Gaps", the summit hopes to empower and capacitate the teachers and administrators of both public and private schools. Some issues and concerns affecting the education sector in the province will also be discussed.

USec. Jesus Lorenzo B. Mateo from the Department of Education, Minister Mohagher Iqbal from the Ministry of Basic Higher and Technical Education of the Bangsamoro Autonomus Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) are some of the invited resource speakers during the summit.

Presently, Basilan is served by three school divisions of the Department of Education, one each for Basilan, Isabela City, and Lamitan City.

Study showed that Basilan's literacy rate has risen over the past two decades, although it remains one of the Philippines' lowest; 72.23% are considered literate, as opposed to the national figure of 92.6%.

More than 42% of the population five years old and older attended or completed elementary education, 17.3% attended or completed high school, while 1.5% attended or finished post secondary education.

Less than 3% possessed academic degrees, while 6.2 percent were college undergraduates. A very small number pursued post-baccalaureate studies. There were more males than females among those who attended or finished elementary (51.1%), high school (50.3%), among college undergraduates (52.0%) and those who took post baccalaureate courses (58.4%). On the other hand, there were more females who attended or completed post-secondary courses (52.9%) and were academic degree holders (52.34%). (NBE/NDR/PIA Basilan with reports from Richard Falcatan-PIO)