PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — A national policy framework (NPF) was recently adopted by the Department of Education ((DepEd) to answer the basic education needs of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) who live in mountain villages and sitios of Mindanao and other areas of the country.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the NPF for IPs is in line with the nation’s commitment to achieve its Education for All (EFA) targets and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) pursuant to DepEd Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA).
Luistro explained through DepEd Order No. 62, series of 2012, which was received here lately by DepEd Region 9 Director Walter Albos, that the NPF was preceded by a consultative and participatory process held in designated venues of Southern Philippines.
Albos said the consultations were followed by a national validation workshop where participants affirmed the principles of the draft framework and later recommended the formulation and implementation of an IP basic education program.
The events were attended by qualified representatives from various IP communities in the country, together with concerned government agencies and civil society partners to ensure that IP groups can claim ownership of this framework, Albos said, quoting Luistro’s directive .
The DepEd chief, Albos said, described the NPF as “an instrument for promoting shared accountability and partnership among education stakeholders, even as it subscribes to the rights-based approach that gives primary importance to the principles of participation, inclusion, and empowerment.
Albos also quoted Luistro as explaining that the National Indigenous People’s Education Policy Framework (NIPEPF) subscribes, among other things, to the following:
• IPs remain to be among the most vulnerable and marginalized members of the citizenry who continue to lack access to decent basic social services, have limited opportunities to engage in the mainstream economy, and suffer social, economic and political exclusion.
• Among the current disadvantages that IPs face, access to culture-responsive basic education stands out as one of the most critical to address it being an essential means for the IPs to claim their rights, exercise self-determination, and expand the choices available to them.
• Elementary and secondary schools accessible to IPs have limited or no capacity to provide culturally appropriate education that is responsive to their context, respects their identities and promotes the value of their traditional knowledge, skills and other aspects of their cultural heritage.
• There are existing models and best practices on IP education based on successful projects and interventions by DepEd, non-government organizations (NGOs), IP organizations (IPOs) and other community-based initiatives which need to be consolidated to formulate a systematic and coherent IP Education Program.
As this developed, the hiring and deployment of qualified teachers in remote communities of Mindanao and other parts of the country that are inhabited by IPs have been pledged by DepEd starting next school year pursuant to the agency’s recently adopted National IP education policy framework.
Luistro stressed that the agency will also review, harmonize and align its teacher education and development policies to support affirmative action to respond to the learning needs of IP school-age children.