Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy

Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy (colloquially known as SKIA) is a private, coeducational institution originally began as a nonsectarian school, subsequently a nonprofit preparatory academy to foster teaching, and currently a four-year degree granting college. For mission differentiation, the Islamic academy retains its research function and fits as constituent unit of the collegiate structure (madrasah kulliyah) in which the professional areas are integrated with the various component of arts and sciences.

The Islamic academy and collegiate co-campuses are located in Sultan Kudarat the municipality, in Maguindanao province, with SKIA elementary annex campus in the City of Cotabato, Philippines.

From the 1990s and into 2000s, the Islamic Academy at Sultan Kudarat took steps (despite tuition gaps) to solidify its status among Philippine universities, colleges, and schools. Along with legacy organization of church-run colleges and missionary schools, the madaris (Arabic, sing. madarsah) normally provide education for a specific religious community. A monogram made up of four capital letters “SKIA” was vetted by the leaders of academia. Pioneering benefactors favored the word-mark “Sultan Kudarat” as primary signature to honor the 17th Century legendary ruler proclaimed national hero in 1975 and marked officially by commemorative postal stamp. To celebrate the momentous event, an old brass cannon relic was mounted on a pedestal on campus in front of the College Founders Hall as instrument of freedom and just peace.

The Islamic Academy was conceived by lawyer Michael O. Mastura, engineer Darwish Al-Gobaishi, and religious leader Salah Muhammad Ali Abdula. As founder of the madrasah kulliyah, Datu Mastura who has taken great strides for school improvements being its chief trustee (wakif) still serves as the first president of Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy.

Institutional Formation

Formally incorporated as Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat Islamic Academy Foundation, Inc. the updated registration of this Muslim legacy organization encountered no obstacles. Through amendment the SKIA founders rewrote its Articles of Incorporation increasing board flexibility by transferring most regulations to the Bylaws. The intent to effect revisions to SKIA SEC REG. ANO91-195240 (9/2/1991) was accomplished by SKIA SEC REG. ANO1-155240 (11/14/2017) allowing for diversity in the educational markets. A strategic view of planning led to the reorganization of the Islamic academy ownership as private philanthropic body not allied wholly to missionary patronage.

Property and land donations combined with endowments of Arab and Muslim charitable enterprise constituted the legacy or bequest (wakaf, pl. awqaf) which has stabilized the Islamic academy and madrasah collegiate. Reorganizing strategically the SKIA nonprofit educational foundation with strong commitment to teacher education has earned standing for continual “college transfer” programs in its catchment area. Finally accredited with School Identification (ID)

Number 476504, the madrasah kulliyah of Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat has maintained accounts with no changes in bank accounts or numbers required for corporate existence by the certifying agencies.

The overall objective to update compliance of criteria standards with which modern madaris system of education is essentially concerned needs a composite view. Most of the institution description under this heading and in the next pages can be subject to verification which relates to accredited standing of the madrasah collegiate. Institutionalization of the Islamic academy covers: Department of Education (DEPED) standard-based K-12 programs; Commission on Higher Education (CHED) new policies on academic programs; and Technical Education and Skills Development Administration (TESDA) for certification requirements. Continuing education encompassing professional development now extends to in-service and staff training, and is far from complete preparation for career lifelong learning since skills is a currency.

No singular model pattern can be viewed for madaris profiles or guide to madrasah collegiate programs though they are surviving and growing entities. Factual surveys of madaris (1970-1980) conducted in 1980 by Ahmad Hassoubah, a visiting professor at Mindanao State University-Marawi, indicated only 2.3% of the faculty obtained an Arabic college degree. Administrators of the Islamic academy found important truths about its quest for institutional uniqueness, and in its search for a “niche” when it was conceived. On close scrutiny, a madrasah collegiate and a university parallel each other in a number of ways as innovatory nonorganization where the independence of individual faculty members is valued highly. Obviously, in most institutions like SKIA, origination built on faculty leadership has elicited key images, metaphors, and values signifying an institution’s history and aspirations. Thus ownership of the vision meant conviction with integrity.

The founding date on the SKIA collegiate seal differs from the year when instruction actually began. Overlapping two squares eight-pointed star symbols with a motto “Iqrah” inscribed at the center of the crest was engraved on the 1991 Islamic academy corporate dry seal to embed its Muslim heritage. The collegiate logo heraldic-symbols were designed in 1993 with help of specialists at the National Library, and friends of the Islamic academy from the Philippine Historical Institute.

Communicating institutional identity matters more than just for promotional ends; as such, SKIA madrasah collegiate profile was cast as a sense of itself, its special story. In 1998, the Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy (SKIA) was featured “Beyond the Madrasah” in the book Jalan Jalan subtitled “A Journey through EAGA” by two independent journalists. Over the last decade, SKIA commuter campus transformed into a model accredited madrasah collegiate of a private non-sectarian type, and the category of a coeducational institution of higher learning. Female faculty and students are still required to wear veils, “although it is far from orthodox” but more in keeping with SKIA co-campus environment education policy.

The open-admission system embraced issues of distinction between professional and nonprofessional that had drawn sharply prior to the past two decades. Madaris institutions entered a new area of comparative or competitive advantage. Thus the Islamic academy discovered what practically matters at the campus level revolved around the enrollment process. In 1998 a franchise was granted to the Islamic academy to operate a radio broadcasting station for distance learning programs. By virtue of R.A. 86681, this small organizational entity served different educational priorities: for the same goal, SKIA campus at inception used <skiaonline.com> web pages aimed to integrate technology. By this relational shift both faculty leaders and adjunct faculty rethought an integrated system to build the SKIA information infrastructure.

The impact of current changes in the external environment at the modern madrasah collegiate became the focus of integration efforts. By then newer electronic sites principally became pivotal links to institutional research and communication of results. SKIA co-campus provided support and student services influenced by proximity to modern electronic tools across organizational lines—from admission, enrollment, registration and bursar, to, academic advising and career services or referrals. Taking student-centered approach, in turn, demanded an integrated system to build information infrastructure, where upgraded facilities for research and communication began to merge at SKIA co-campus.

By modest organizational changes, the SKIA Foundation College repositioned to be responsive to real needs of student, faculty, and community. Computing, communication and critical thinking enhanced project-based real world learning experience for the integration of information technology. Technological advances in digital-span of education prepared students, faculty and staff at SKIA co-campus to become knowledge workers of the 21st century. The extent to which technologies support pedagogies made them effective “enablers of the consumers of online” at student academic services.

History

A short history of the Islamic Academy at Sultan Kudarat tracks the founding of a village Muslim institution that relocated to Bulalo from Salimbao town market of the pre-war Nuling municipal district. To fill a special niche, the madrasah preparatory classes were opened initially under the patronage of core lineage descendants of Sultan Kudarat, dedicating the legacy of Datu Mastura library collection, the royal clan bequests and pious endowments.

Early benefactors of the Islamic academy at Sultan Kudarat insisted on establishing a wakaf (Arabic, pl. awqaf) which is identical to the act of charitable trust subject to its rules and regulations. Thus college growth factor defines the extinction of ownership of the dedicator in perpetuity to the SKIA campus in such a manner that its pecuniary benefits and all proceeds are applied to the beneficiary—the Islamic academy foundation—verified by a certified public accountant.

This foundational stage enhanced collegiality rooted in traditions of madrasah patronage by charity institution. From establishment it was notably known as a “madrasah” (Arabic, pl. madaris) referring to a group of religious teachers and the pedagogical drills they applied, rather than the buildings they used. The traditional functioning of madrasah derived from a body of teachers and scholars engaged in a common pursuit, in this instance learning, with lectures and Qur’an recitation classes attached to a mosque as an institution. During its early years, the Islamic academy was affiliated with the Muslim Religious Board of Cotabato (later renamed Al-Jumiyah Al-Khairia) simultaneously associated with most similar madaris and forerunner Madrasatul Rashida, Jamiatul Philippine Al-Islamia, and Jamiatu Muslim Mindanao.

Seeking a distinctive niche continued to progress into a two-dimensional model. A brief anatomy of transitioning gradual change in the act of foundation from a religious site to one historically linked with the Islamic institution of kulliyah (Latin, collegium) was an important step in aligning criterion standards. Once authority was transformed by the school Masters (acting collectively and distinctively) into academic standards the institutional continuity of SKIA madrasah collegiate experience accelerated enrollment with steady growth in resources augmented by Muslim philanthropy and madaris patronage of family legacy organization.

Duality of Education Issues

Strategic direction to upgrade a privately administered standard madarsah at Sultan Kudarat was successful in enrolling the first batch of 325 students with 15 faculty and staff tasked to teach a special science class in 1991. The transition term of Datu Michael O. Mastura as first president inaugurated the four-year degree granting college in 1993 not limited to a faculty of theology. The core features of curriculum infused with Islamic content at SKIA campus included coursework and remedial reading in Arabic and English. Thus SKIA campus transformed into a Foundation College began with seven-person faculty focusing on teacher education, pedagogy and learning environment based upon Islamic principles and values.

Contributors to this section weighed in the scientific dimension that exposed discernible effects of dual pattern of education for colleges of Islamic mission and vision. “Duality of education” means “having two types of education with two separate aims,” starting at primary stage with special curriculum, and ending with college of Islamic and Arabic education. Rather, a two-dimensional category of madrasah curricular model (while broadly rooted in longer history) grew from essential Islamic contents producing graduates who usually work as teachers, mosque imams, or preachers.

Common issues emerged from this weight of experience that prompted madrasah collegiate growth. Trends and innovations in encyclopedic form evolve “in order to change the common manner of thinking” with criticism tied to progress. Science raises very deep questions “about belief and doubt” underlying the mode of study. Thus far faculties in higher education grounded technology in culture as an integrating activity, because it has practical and experiential element. Clearly, the view of science education across the curriculum since 1976 encouraged schools to move in the direction of producing a better workforce.

Yet, again, the educational context that college should offer more than the usual academic subjects shaping then the service philosophy of community colleges was still much based on understanding of subject pedagogy. Considerations for consensus dialogue by two disinterested visitors of the Islamic academy were geared to look more closely at the process and method of madrasah education. Despite strong espousal the continuing appeal of white-collar careers was stunting efforts to channel Muslim rural students into vocational-technical training and agricultural schools.

Curriculum content areas for project work were amplified by professor Azizan Abdulrazak into content and process of “making things” with vocational significance, but cautioned against teaching low level skills “with little transferability.” About the same time (1988), computing science in school was moving away from mathematics towards data processing. Career preparation and occupational programs were designed for SKIA co-campus to overcome perceived dichotomy between “religious” and “secular” sciences. Polytechnic colleges soon were at the forefronts of new programs and services offering new kinds of subjects: technology, agriculture, and other aspects of applied sciences.

Curriculum structure of the applied study concept brings internal conflict about content and standards at “ladderized” career level. The need for technological education rather than technical training was examined by professor Kamal Hassan for school leavers who enter higher education. Specifically “teacher education” and “teacher training” are two very different processes, each with underlying conception of teacher development. The faculty of education decided this developmental aspect of curriculum change would attract SKIA college transfer to fill AB, BSED or BEED entry.

Administrative Organization

SKIA general administrators come from the ranks of staff with divided duties at the school building level. The small college internal organization of services and facilities which is not divided into distinct functional segments serves as guide. There is at SKIA co-campus a nonorganization hierarchy at the same time a career ladder for those who choose educational leadership. A bit of broad program description may be helpful here to think through a pattern where the sense of hierarchy is diminished but collegiality is achieved.

The founders formally registered the Islamic academy initially operating under Ministry of Education, Culture & Sports (MECS) Order No. 24, S. 1985. SKIA campus was the first-ever madrasah operated as a special science class under MECS permit to set up the foundations of technology information with assistance from DOST-Science Education Institute (SEI). Administrative follow-through was the key to MECS Non-Formal Education Division initiative for an industry-supported career and technology education program at the suburban SKIA main campus. Today two new factors influence school administration, namely, senior high extended schooling and increase in the number of students. The practical value of career guidance intervention is a tool for peer student admission activity at SKIA co-campus with open-door options mentioned earlier.

Contemporary academic services at SKIA co-campus have expanded to current programs of madaris education with fund support from the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM) Project. With affordability of modern standard-based madaris, a new policy currently seeks to harmonize existing DEPED issuances on Muslim Education as a component of the national education system. Madaris education at SKIA Foundation College realigns duality of system to standards and curriculum which find new policy basis in DEPED Order 41, S. 2017 of the K to 12 Enhanced Basic Education Program.

SKIA Elementary Annex formation follows the national structure of compulsory Basic Education. Early Childhood education Kindergarten to Grade 3 may be taught in the Mother Tongue. The Curricular Program offered builds on spiral approach to criterion standards to complete K-12 Curriculum: Kindergarten, Elementary (Grades 1 to 6); Junior High (Grade 7 to Grade 10); and Senior High (Grade 11 to Grade 12) and Career & Technology TESDA Livelihood Tracks.

Governance and Leadership

Governance has a very different role in a four-year degree granting madarsah collegiate, specifically the board capacity for action with flexibility. Quite apart from improving the functioning of SKIA structures, the capability of trusteeship stands out to overcome impediments to institutional operations. The five-member Board of Trustees governs SKIA Foundation College’s leadership, planning and resources. The election of officers is conducted at the Board’s annual meeting in June of odd-numbered years. SKIA Board officers serve two-year terms.

As a matter of bylaws, a Nominating Committee consisting of three Trustees presided by a Chair emeritus is appointed at the Board’s regular September meeting in odd-numbered years. It is charged with preparing a slate of candidates to serve as board chair, vice chair, secretary, and treasurer. The chair and vice chair are elected members of the Board, but the secretary, the treasurer, the comptroller need not be members of the Board. The chief trustee (wakif) is installed President & CEO by virtue of his office.

Campus and Buildings

The SKIA Foundation College’s primary service region is Muslim Mindanao and includes Cotabato City. Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy hosts the SKIA Elementary Annex campus located at Gen. Luna Street, Barangay RH-4 where Al-Burhan Mosque is situated in the same compound. The SKIA 22-acres (8.8 hectares) co-campus site is situated immediately across the Rio Grande de Mindanao within fifteen minutes travel from the City of Cotabato.

Proximity to the Mindanao Great River means a portion of the SKIA main campus falls within the Pulangi Basin flood zones from the southern edge and the Simuay River to the northern end of the co-campus property. The main campus was submerged by an above-waistline flush flood in 2008 brought about by Typhoons Frank and Jolina successively. Beginning 2017, SKIA students have benefitted from Starbooks, the first Philippine science digital library, established by the DOST-ARMM in Sultan Kudarat as technological resources for SKIA faculty learning community. Through the Deployment of Early Warning System Project, this device will provide a six hour lead-time warning to vulnerable communities against impeding floods.

SKIA co-campus was set in suburban context with mixed old and new buildings. There was reluctance to abandon the historical quad-style campus architecture starting with construction of the administration building. Madrasah patronage helped to erect three wings of teaching facilities into Al-Mohairy Halls (1995) in response to growing student population. Early into 2000s, a period of growth and building activity gave SKIA co-campus a new image expanding improved facilities for computer-lab and workstation, student social hall, athletic fields and libraries. The functional structure style was a matter SKIA campus accomplished in the Technical-Vocational Skills Development Center built and funded through Japan’s Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

Courses of Instruction

The Madrasah Kulliyah of Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat comprises six faculties assigned with distribution courses of instruction and credits required for graduation:

• Arts & Science

• Arabic Language & Islamic

• Studies Education

• Office Administration & Secretarial Science

• Information Computing Technology, includes library-media resource

• Career & technical education requirement

Academics

The general education component of higher education still largely based on academic disciplines does not correspond to kulliyah al-adab program description. Increasingly specialization and advanced learning skills, and the emergence of career-related programs make this kind of “common learning” impractical in most institutions. The curriculum at madrasah collegiate allows students to choose from prescribed courses with guidance of a faculty advisor.

Each academic division at SKIA Foundation College provides a program description which varies with majors required and general electives. Baccalaureate Programs include the following: Bachelor of Arts (AB) Bachelor of Arts Islamic Studies (ABIS); Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEED); Bachelor of Secondary Education (BSED); Bachelor of Science in Office Administration (BSOA); and Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT).

Students just entering their chosen field can proceed to take a Masters of Arts degree, and current tenured schoolteachers can earn Masters in Education, major in educational management and leadership.

Recognition and Representation

This nonprofit educational institution is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Islamic academy and madrasah collegiate is accredited to administer programs of study by the Commission on Higher Education. The Department of Education has approved its authority to operate Basic Education K-12 programs aligned to standard-based curriculum and to elementary standard madaris curriculum. Career programs that prepare learners for employment or in upgrading their skills are certified by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

References

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