MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) has allocated P100 million to improve the education of indigenous peoples (IPs).
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said the funding shall be provided to 100 divisions in 15 regions this school year under the IPs education (IPEd) program.
The recipient regions include Ilocos, Cordillera, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Western Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao, Caraga and the National Capital Region.
He said the funding will be used for capacity building to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by teachers and personnel across DepEd offices and units in order for them to be effective IPEd implementors.
“This is part of our commitment to achieve the Education for All (EFA) 2015 targets and the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations which we are duty bound to fulfill,†Luistro said.
“The program is the DepEd’s response to the right of IPs to education that is responsive to their context, respectful of their identity and supportive of the value of their indigenous knowledge, skills and other aspects of their cultural heritage,†he added.
It is also intended for advocacy and partnership building within DepEd, with non-government organizations, IP organizations and communities and other IP advocates.
The fund can also be utilized in establishing baseline and situational analysis on IPEd specifically in creating a data base on IPs, the DepEd chief said.
The Philippines has an estimated 14 to 17 million IPs belonging to 110 ethno-linguistic groups, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
They are mainly concentrated in Northern Luzon (Cordillera Administrative Region, 33 percent) and Mindanao (61 percent), with some groups in the Visayas area.
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues’ State of the World of Indigenous Peoples report in January 2010 revealed that IPs make up fully one-third of the world’s poorest peoples, suffer disproportionately in areas like health, education, and human rights, and regularly face systemic discrimination and exclusion.
Republic Act 8371, also known as the “Indigenous Peoples Rights Act,†which was enacted in 1997, recognized the right of IPs to manage their ancestral domains and has become the cornerstone of current national policy on IPs.