Just last year, the Department of Education came out with DepEd Order 62, S. 2012 also known as the National Framework for Indigenous Peoples Education. If there are people to rejoice, we, being the Indigenous People should be the first ones to dance. The Cordillera Administrative Region which is basically the home of several IPs as the Ibaloi, Kankanaey, Karao tribes of Benguet; Kankanaey, Aplai (still Kankanaey in reality),Bontoks, Balangao, Majukayong and Baliwon/Ga'adang tribes of Mountain Province and those of Kalinga, Apayao, Ifugao and Abra. Of course, even the conglomerated Igorots of the different tribes gathered in Baguio.
DepEd Order 62 is a great leap of consciousness and paradigm shift among the people at the Central Office, admitting the very blatant fact that education in the Philippines tried to develop people with the same views, thinking and levels disregarding the more basic fact that not all their learners are starting on the same step. It is admitting that education in the past had consciously promoted what's in the textbooks and subconsciously marginalized the indigenous people.
While this is a great leap, however, there are still so many things to consider in the implementation of this order which I have observed in my dealings with the Philippine Response to Indigenous People and Muslim Education (PRIME) activities for at least six months now.
There is a great question on WHO WILL IMPLEMENT THE PROGRAM. Will it be implemented by non-IPs for the IPs or will it be the IPs owning the program knowing full well that it will be for their own good and development? WILL THIS JUST BE ANOTHER BENEVOLENT ASSIMILATION repeating the paradigm not anymore with the whites to the colored but now with the same skin and nationality to their own kind? Statements such as "We should pity these IPs since they are not civilized. Let us help them...." makes me puke and want to hold them on the shoulder and shake them to their core. However, pity takes place when I see that they are saying it with all innocence and I come to realize that THIS IS EXACTLY THE FRUIT OF THEIR OWN EDUCATION so if there is something to be done, it has really to start within the system itself. But, it is not a one day activity - it can never be done through a training and a training design. IT IS A PROCESS - for the products of the old curriculum, it is an UNLEARNING, LEARNING AND RELEARNING. And, this cannot be done if the person itself does not recognize the fact that his/her own learning is deficient and defective.
It pains me to hear words as, "So, why is there a need for IP Education? Why do we need to go back to the past? Who would like to go back to something backwards? We have already moved forward and yet, why go back?" But these are just reflecting our paradigms of IP education and how confused the IPs are with their own identity. Identity crisis of IPs is very much clearer than your own face in the mirror with this question, "So, what is it in being an IP?" The hairs of my hands simply stood up. I am really at my wit's end especially when it dawned on me that these were questions that came from the IPs themselves who should be the first one to appreciate and see the beauty of IPED even without having to skin it a little at a time. IT DEPRESSES ME TO THINK THAT IF THE IPs THEMSELVES ARE AS CONFUSED AS THIS, HOW MUCH MORE WILL IT BE FOR THE NON-IPs? But, I prayed that time will come and their eyes will be opened SINCE THE REASON I SEE FOR SUCH CONFUSION IS THE RESULT OF THE EDUCATION ITSELF THAT THEY HAVE UNDERGONE - they have accepted the education that they went through and along the process, THEY HAVE LOST THEMSELVES AND THEIR IDENTITY - their being an Indigenous People.
IPED is not simply translating the English stories of Cinderella to the Mother Tongue or writing the local stories in English or Filipino. It is far more than that. We have examined some materials prepared by teachers for IPED in Grade 1, yet while I see that they are in Mother Tongue, they are still far from what the child in the locality are conscious of. While the Thomasite education of the Filipinos started with A as in Apple which for sure is not in the Philippines at those times, some teachers borrowed words from neighboring towns or in the Filipino language or used terms which are not yet local to represent the letter when they can choose from what's in the locality. Translating is needed and is important but it is the lowest form of IPED - let's start with it but should not stay long in it.
Orthography had become popular nowadays. It took the implementation of the K+12 for us to look back and examine our own language, which we have been degrading in the past by calling it simply dialects and the languages are only those widely spoken - what a confusion to the already confused minds. No wonder that the products of the olden education still very strongly cling to what they have already learned and sometimes refuse to learn, unlearn and relearn since the confusion already took root and it is now hard to pull it out.
BY WHOSE PARADIGM WILL IPED BE? Will it be at the paradigm of the Indigenous People or will it be at the paradigm of the all knowing educators who prefer to stay in their offices and decide on the fate of others (and even do not care to know the situation of the schools in the far flung areas which usually serves IPs since it is very far and it can hardly be reached by the cars)? It is really a great question. The IPs and the innocent had been victims of these tower approaches for a long time, so it is then very important to go beyond what's superficial. Examine the causes, effects and impacts. Work more on the root and the processes rather than on the color of the bark of the tree or the fruits. To have a good fruit, the roots which gives life to the tree should be examined first.
There are a lot to be discussed on IPED. There are a lot to be fixed before the program can fully soar but THE TIME IS RIPE.
Before the IPs will forget their own identity and self-determinism, it is time to help them go back to knowing their own self which they have started to forget with the introduction of the old education.
These and many more which I can hardly type are the products of my idle mind at this point. My mind is full, yet it has to wander to be able to digest what's really trying to make it non-functional.
But with the situations posed above, I still wonder on what to give as an answer to Dodong, an articulate Mangyan we met at our immersion at PAMANA KA, which goes, "What can CAR do in IP education?" The question is really malupit since I myself is lost, hope I and all other IPs will be found before it is too late.
