The Culminating Activity for the Teachers’ Month (September 5 to October 5) side by side with the Indigenous Peoples Education (IPED) Congress was done in Bontoc, Mountain Province last week. That is also the start of a series of activities in DepEd- Mountain Province to celebrate the Indigenous Peoples Month. Since IP Education is the K to 12 of Mountain Province and that of the whole CAR, this is written to advocate and clarify what IPEd is all about.
In a series of formal and informal gatherings and talks with people, many including educators themselves are hesitant to do IPEd on the thought that this is forcing us and our children to go back to the archaic past. Others have the notion that IPEd will keep us tied only to our ancestral domain. There are many misconceptions that we need to clarify if we want IPEd to move on.
What is Indigenous Peoples Education? Why only now? How is it to be done? Who are involved? These are just some of the many questions that keep on bugging the very first people who should be implementing this.
For sure, IPEd is not JUST education to the IPs whereby the former is simply bringing education to where the IPs are whether that education is appropriate or not. It is simply teaching the IPs how to read, write and do mathematics. In the end, most of the times, the learners will hardly be able to connect what they have learned inside the classroom to the real-life scenario.
In the context of Mountain Province and even the Cordillera Administrative Region, IPEd is K to 12 itself. K to 12 was purposely designed to be contextualized, to make it relevant and appropriate to wherever it will be brought to within the country. Putting it loosely, when it is brought to the Bicolanos and it is contextualized by them, then it is Bicolano education; when it is contextualized by the Ilocanos, then it becomes Ilocano education. In other words, K to 12 is likened to a chameleon, while it changes colors to blend in it is still the same K to 12 that DepEd is implementing. It is not being done correctly then if it is not contextualized to be suited to the local scenario. It adheres and strongly includes and implements the principles of appropriateness to its direct client.
It recognizes the importance of the much-debated Mother-tongue. It recognized that English and Filipino are not the only school languages but even our own and that our own language is not just a dialect after all. It respected the very basic fact that learning can still be effective even if we start with our own and that our own language is that important also.
The Japanese, Koreans and Chinese all mastered their own languages. Seldom do you meet any of them with perfectly good English but they have the skills to live by. Now, they are soaring in the field of technology while we are still wallowing in our own limitations like our inability to speak perfectly good English and our inability to use our own acquired knowledge to improve our technology. While making watches and using solar cells seem to be a plaything to high school Japanese students, our own graduate students still have a hard time distinguishing the proper way to connect wires. Indeed, we can in general speak better English but what have we got after that?
So, I disagree when people look down on the use of Mother-tongue fearing that their children will know less. For sure, it will be the opposite. Having monitored the implementation of Mother-tongue, I do agree to its effectiveness on developing the higher order thinking skills of the learners. The children can think and answer without inhibitions questions as , “Why do you think so? , How come that came about? How do you think will this end? How could we make it better?” and so on and so forth – questions they can hardly answer if asked in 2nd languages as English and Filipino. This is so because, the language barrier was already transcended with Mother-tongue, making the learners more active and thus, developing confidence in their own selves. I have also encountered experiences as learners who were taught to speak in other languages without being taught their own language. Mother-tongue time is also a time for them to come in touch with their own language, with their own identity for language carries with it the soul of your own ethnicity. With Mother-tongue, the learners will establish their own identity and know their own selves better minus the confusions of the importance of their own. Mother-tongue is IPEd in itself. Slowly, as the years go by, these learners are introduced to other languages and if they are already confident on their own, the entrance of the other languages will be easier. Indeed Mother-tongue is developing the 3=Cs which are confidence, comprehension and cultural identity of the learners.
Further, DepEd-CAR as, through the leadership of the Regional Director Ellen B. Donato, exercised its self-determination made a move at the Central Office that if they want the principles of Mother-tongue to really be successful, they have to recognize other languages in the locality aside from the major ones – and, it was granted. A move was also made to try to reconsider the Roxas law on the DepEd Planning Standards. Thus, IPEd really cause each of the duty bearers to reflect and see how they can help improve the services being rendered.
Relevance and appropriateness are some of K to 12’s guiding principles. Without contextualizing or indigenizing K to 2, it will not therefore be relevant and appropriate. Our children will be lost in the classroom and will be lost further outside the classroom. What they learned inside the classroom would seem to be inapplicable outside. Concepts and principles will all be abstract good only for the classroom.
Out of pure irritation and frustration, I once asked my College Algebra instructor why we have to learn all the x and y when the truth is we use real numbers. Her answer further erased my interest since she does not also know (But maybe she was also taken aback by my question that she did not have time enough to think of it.) why the administration offers that to us. If the Algebra teacher cannot answer a simple question as that taking into consideration that they are the very first ones who can understand the concepts of x and y, how could we expect the learners to appreciate and understand it?
Almost two years ago, I was one of the few who were able to observe a class on Algebra at PAMANAKA, a private school established purposely to offer appropriate and relevant education to the Mangyans in Occidental Mindoro. The class was on Mathematics yet they started it by talking about the kaingin for a few minutes. Then the teacher asked them what signs would tell them that the fruits of their labors are about to be harvested. My ears became more attentive. There was a flow of answers like “bitak sa lupa” (they were learning Math in Filipino). Then the teacher asked, if they can count the “bitak sa lupa?” The learners answered, “Opo” pwede daw nila itong bilangin. The teacher continued with if there are five (5) “bitak sa lupa”{ the teacher wrote 5 on the board and drew a simple illustration of land with camote and 5 “bitak sa lupa), can we count the how many camote are inside? Of course, the learners answered no. So, she continued with, since we can count 5 but we cannot count the camote inside, then we represent the camote as x so now we have an example of a monomial which is 5x. Again she asked, is there a possibility that if we have dug the first layer, there will still be a second layer of camote? Since the learners answered that it is possible, she continued the equation with 5x + x which is still monomial since it is still of the same product. Then she asked them what else can show the same sign as “bitak sa lupa” when it is to be harvested? They answered kamoteng kahoy. With that, she continued the equation, if there are 3 “bitak sa lupa” then we have 5x + x + 3y which is now a binomial. She explained further that it has to be y or another letter different from x since it is a different product. The realization hit me that if my Math teacher would have taught us this way, then Math would not have been so difficult to understand since I would have seen its relevance to my immediate life. That while I would have been doing my chores, I’d see that in the end, it is not really abstract for it is something very praxis and for sure I would not have asked that question years ago.
In Araling Panlipunan/HEKASI, the children learned all kinds of heroes outside their own place. They have memorized Rizal, Bonifacio, del Pilar but none of their own and that some were not even told that they can also be heroes in their own ways. Thus sadly, we can’t help overhearing statements from learners as, “I don’t want to be a hero for heroes die,” or “He can’t be a hero, he’s not in the book.” Sometimes, the hidden curriculum is stronger than what we really want to teach.
Further, we knew of the Bataan defense during World War II but have we ever realized that there were Igorots who were part of the forces that defended that place? Only a handful even knew how gallantly our Igorot ancestors fought with their g-strings climbing tanks to put bombs inside. Yet, no other than General McArthur noted this down. Emilio Aguinaldo did not just fly from Tirad Pass to Palanan, Isabela. He had been roaming in Mountain Province, Ifugao and Kalinga before he reached Palanan but we were never taught this. We knew of Biak-na-bato but we were lost in our own. Now, K to 12 as IPEd is forcing us to look into our own.
The Mathematics Education Program Supervisor of Cagayan de Oro during their IPEd benchmarking in Mountain Province did not fail to appreciate our rice terraces and toping as an application of Mathematics and Engineering skills but we have not looked into it that way. In fact, one engineer from the locality even questioned why Sadanga NHS still teaches toping yet we already have cement and steel bars. But this reaction comes when we ourselves do not see and appreciate our own. IPEd then marries the Western knowledge and the indigenous knowledge together so that while we appreciate the Western knowledge, we also see how our ancestors applied such and that though they have not written down their theories and laws, they have applied them.
I have heard from one elder from our hometown that Jesus summarized the 10 commandments into two but we have summarized it into one word and the word was INAYAN. It took some time for his words to sink in because I tried looking into the different angles of how inayan is used. I was surprised to realize that he was right that if we apply inayan in our lives, we will be pleasing in God’s sight and living in harmony with man.
Culture before it becomes what it is underwent processes including research, though for sure were not written as we do now. If we try to imagine, how do you think did our ancestors discover some fruits, plants, mushrooms to be edible while others are not? For sure, they have done observations, they have tried trial-and-error methods, they have experienced eating them, too. And, when it was good, they made it a part of their diet and when not, either they check further on it or they abandon it for food purposes.
The point is that contextualization is still the call of times. If we are teaching K to 12 exactly working only on the content placed in the Teachers’ Manual, we are not doing it correctly. We then need to re-examine ourselves as teacher duty-bearers and as IPs if we are. We therefore need to again go back to our own K to 12 manuals and study them and also read RA 10533 which is the K to 12 Law as well as look into its Implementing Rules and Regulations
IPEd in Mountain Province is not the sole responsibility of DepEd, it is the accountability of all, the community especially of the elders; DepEd as the teachers, administrators and all other personnel; and the stakeholders which includes the parents, LGUs, other government agencies. The fire to do IPEd is because of the community’s aspirations for appropriate education, K to 12, and IPRA. In the course of discourse the Mountain Province Indigenous Peoples Education Framework was formed which are as stated below.
1. MP-IPEd is contextualized K to 12. K to 12 is designed in a way that it has to be localized to be learner-centered, responsive, culture-sensitive, culture-based, relevant and appropriate to the receivers that while they develop 21st skills, they also develop their cultural rootedness and identity.
2. MP-IPEd is participative, inclusive and empowering (PIE). IPs are not only consulted but are involved from the start to the end educational processes. They are part of the processes, making them partners and empowering them to make their own decisions as they contribute to Indigenous Peoples Education.
Further discussions and workshops on what participative, inclusive and empowering means for DepEd-MP resulted to the following:
Inclusive
• It is inclusive because it includes both IP and non-IP learners in Mountain Province.
• It includes IP partners and stakeholders from the crafting, implementation up to the monitoring and evaluation of the IPED Framework.
• It includes different formal, ALS, ADMs and informal learning modalities.
• It is not coercive for non-IPs. Non-IPs, and sometimes even IPs in the domain will learn but are not forced to adopt to the IP beliefs, customary laws and practices of their place.
Participative
• IPED is a concern of every IP in Mountain Province from the crafting, advocacy, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• The extent of participation on the part of non-DepED IPs of Mt Province include conducting research on IKSPs, validation and even in delivery of instruction with the spirit of volunteerism.
Empowering. Every IP has the chance to be heard in decision-making. This helps them to be assertive of their rights to self-determination but without stepping at others in the process.
3. MP-IPEd is founded on the clear and common understanding of the key documents and elements that are fundamental basis of IPED (DO 62, RA 8371, AD, RA 10533). It is important that there is a clear and common understanding of the legal bases of IPED. RA 8371, DO 62, s. 2011 and RA 10533 are mandates of the NCIP and DepED, respectively. AD should also be understood, i.e. it is not just territory but its whole component. IPED has also a clear understanding on the written culture which is fundamental basis but documents should therefore be validated.
4. MP-IPEd is founded on the Ancestral Domain. IPED is rooted in the ancestral domain. In the K to 12 words, it is culture-based. AD includes land, air, water (surface and beneath), spirits, beliefs, value systems, practices, relationsips and others. IPED does not only concentrate on the products of the culture like dances and songs but should dig into the roots of products such as the philosophies and principles of the community.
CULTURE AND IPs
Culture, as illustrated above, is the product of the interactions of man. From these interactions, they have come into terms with their own experiences which were solidified into the IKSPs which when made alive through practice is what we now call as culture. Sometimes these IKSPs were considered superstitious by the Western point of view but these are based on solid experiences and experimentations conducted in the process of learning. The cultural practices are just manifestations of these experiences.
If in the course of contextualization, we only look into the fruits, then slowly the culture fades. The culture-based curriculum should then include the world views and philosophies of the IPs themselves, not only those that are superficial.
5. MP-IPEd puts emphasis on the functional picture of the AD before and today. To benchmark, a situational analysis on the AD during the pre-colonial era and the post-colonial times was done. It is therefore the umili who will judge their own culture and check what is to be retained and what is to be changed. What should be taught and what is to be stopped. IPEd is not going back to the olden times, it is making us better people instead by benchmarking on what we are now, reflecting on how we could be better as we live who we are, our own identity proudly without pretense. Further, it brings out respect of others, respect of our own, respect of the culture of other people that the real understanding of equality be exercised.
6. MP-IPEd gives significance to the understanding of the dynamics of change, AD understanding of development and its impact. Change is inevitable thus, IPED is not placed tightly in a box. Rather, it is open to appropriate change and the developments it brings which are in consonance with the Ancestral Domain understanding and dynamics of change. AD understanding of development may not be similar with the understanding in the Western world, like high towering buildings but rather a holistic abundance of health, love, support, food, strength for the individual and the family which in Western Mountain Province are contained in words as masika-sika, ipeyas. But, it shall be open to change through acculturation but never assimilation.
Acculturation is the intercultural borrowing marked by continuous transmission of traits and elements between diverse peoples resulting in new and blended patterns (Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary, 1961). With acculturation, both the accepting culture and the accepted culture are being respected. The accepted culture does not dominate but rather interacts with the accepting culture. Example here is the use of bagoong that blended naturally with the lemons of the mountains. While we accepted the use of the t-shirts and pants, we have not totally forgotten the use of our tapis and g-strings.
Assimilation, on the other hand, is a sociocultural fusion wherein individuals and groups of differing ethnic heritage acquire the basic habits, attitudes and mode of life of the embracing national culture (Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary, 1961). In other words, one culture is forgotten in the process of embracing the other culture. This is on the thought that the culture being introduced and embraced is better than the culture being left. This usually happens when the embracing individual does not have a solid appreciation of his/her own identity. Thus, it would be easier for him/her to embrace the “dominant” culture so as to escape criticisms for being “different.” Assimilation does not respect the other culture. It propagates the thought that one is better thus results to discrimination which may even be deadly. World History showed examples of these as the genocides that happened during the World War I and II, the organization and activities of the Ku Klux Klan, the name Burma which was then changed to Myanmar, the fight led by Martin Luther King, etc. Yet, our own locality harbors many examples, too – a shame that did not really come out from what we have done but rather from being who we are and not appreciating who we are which later on resulted to some actions as not teaching our children our own mother tongue, not appreciating our own “inatep/ ferey,” labeling others who are darker in skin and appreciating the lighter ones as well as trying our best to use whiteners to have a lighter shade.
7. MP-IPEd is ancestral domain-based with the ancestral domain as the unit of planning (reference point). The ancestral domain is the unit of planning and it is the foundation of Indigenous Peoples Education in Mountain Province. Thus, Mountain Province is to prepare their School Improvement Plan integrating the school in the bigger picture, the ancestral domain. Though admittedly, the school had always been recognized to have been playing an important role in the society, now it will not plan independently but will plan as an organic part of the ili and not only based on the situation of the school per se but including the ancestral domain.
8. MP-IPEd encompasses three modes of education delivery which is through the formal (Kinder to Grade 12), Alternative Learning System (ALS) and the Ancestral Domain Education (ADEd). Formal learning is embodied in the Kinder to Grade 12 but teachers will not only focus on developing the competencies without having to contextualize. K to 12 is basically designed to be contextualized in the local situation, thus, not contextualizing the content and competencies of K to 12 means the duty-bearers are not doing K to 12 as planned. If the learner goes out of the classroom and thinks that what he/she learned therein is not applicable in his or her own locality, then we have failed as educators in the delivery of the mandates of K to 12. This is also true with the Alternative Learning System. The ADEd is not really new since it had been the ways of our ancestors in passing on their competencies and wisdom to the young. This does not have a definite face yet. But, it includes all the indigenous learning systems (ILS) that happen in the “ili” including the way the young acquires the learning. When the young follows his/her mother to the farm even as young as five years old, and helps in ways as picking and cleaning the camote, is not child labor – rather it had always been our ancestors’ way of teaching us that work is a part of us and not to be detested for it is also at these times that the young understands the value of life, work, food production, environment all packaged into one. Joining community activities and sitting with the elders are ADEd activities. Storytelling through narratives, parables and fables, anecdotes; demonstration; learning-by-doing or actual work; observation; participation/ involvement are just some of the methods and strategies that they had been using for so many generations and which are still being used even until these days. Though much of the MP-IP literature had been passed orally either through songs, narratives like genealogy, storytelling, they had stuck to the olds but the young now who were educated seldom developed their innate orality thus are relying on their literacy.
9. MP-IPEd is rights-based with the IPs as the rights bearer and DepEd and the community as the duty-bearer.
The right to be educated is owned by the indigenous peoples but this right is to be delivered by the duty bearers. The duty-bearers, on the other hand, who are composed of DepEd (teachers, school heads, supervisors and all other personnel) and the IPs themselves especially the elders as IPED in Mountain Province is a partnership of the IPs and DepEd, have the responsibility, if not the burden, to deliver appropriate education to the rights-bearers. Delivering IP education therefore, cannot be done by DepEd alone but rather by all people in the community especially the elders.
10. MP-IPEd is a partnership of DepEd and the IPs themselves. IPEd shall not push through without DepEd, or without the IPs. It is an endeavor of both. While DepEd works on its mandate to deliver appropriate education especially in the formal and ALS education, the IPs have that burning passion to pass on what makes them as a people to the next generation in partnership with DepEd and through the Ancestral Domain Education itself. Further, there shall be an IPEd Council of Elders and Council of Stakeholders in the provincial level that shall be organized to help DepEd implement IPEd. The IPEd Council of Elders is organized per school or per barangay or per ili relative to appropriate conditions of the concerned schools. If the schools located in a barangay are near each other and have the same elders involved then the schools can have just one IPEd Council of Elders but if the schools in the same barangay are really far from each other, then it would be practical to have one IPEd Council of Elders for one school. Likewise, all other stakeholders of the school like the LGUs, parents, teachers, learners, Civil Society Organization, other government agencies, alumni, etc shall likewise be the Council of Stakeholders.
11. MP-IPEd is part of the assertion of the MPs of Mountain Province for self-determination. IPEd is free from the dictates of outsiders. It is an assertion of the self-determination of the indigenous peoples in Mountain Province, thus, indigenous peoples education is to be defined and decided by them. IPEd then is their window of claiming who they are (identity) as they decide and act appropriately for what is best for their ancestral domain.
Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) may be new to our ears but it had been ongoing in other countries, including the Philippines, for many years already. For the Philippines, the oldest established school that is doing indigenous peoples education is the Kalahan Academy of Imugan, Sta. Fe. Other schools such as Pamanaka of the Mangyans in Mindoro, School of Living Traditions in Mindanao and others only came later.
In a study recently conducted by the University of the Philippines, Indigenous Peoples Education is being done in the Philippines in many ways as insertion of cultural elements, addition of a new subject focused on IKSPs, integration in the curriculum, integration with an additional subject and the last one is an IP curriculum based on the community activities.
Insertion of cultural elements is plainly using IKSPs as examples or being mentioned but the IKSP is not being discussed thoroughly to be understood. It is plainly being inserted like being used in a sentence. Some schools made it into another subject area but the danger of this is that the hidden curriculum might be that IKSPs are just separate from the whole curriculum. Integration is looking into the DepEd competencies and entry points of IKSPs in it. So the IKSPs and the DepEd competencies blend together. However, others still included integration as well as adding another subject purposely for IKSP discussions. Lastly, IP curriculum is based on the community life cycle and the DepEd competencies are integrated into the curriculum. This is the opposite of integration because in integration, the basis for what should be included and what should be left out are the DepEd competencies but in the IP curriculum the basis is the community life cycle and the DepEd competencies are included where they are relevant. What Mountain Province attempted in the indigenization of their curriculum is integration but some efforts are trying to explore IP curriculum.
Integration will show that our ancestors also developed Science, Math, Araling Panlipunan, TLE, language, Values Education, MAPEH but they are not boxed as such. These are not separate from each other like in doing toping or mountain engineering as named by DepEd. In toping, they do Math, they socialize, they have applied values, they do livelihood, they test their strength and stamina, they do Physics, they communicate so they touch all subject areas because in reality life is not boxed in subject areas but are rather rolled into one. Thus, one IKSP can be touched in all subject areas. So, as prescribed by DepEd-Cordillera Administrative Region, IKSPs should be taught using thematic approach. It is not surprising then that sample curriculum webs were prepared by the Education Program Supervisors in all divisions in CAR for the teachers.
Yet, one still wonders why we are called indigenous peoples which seem to be separating us from the other peoples. For lack of a collective term to describe us and our counterparts in the whole world, indigenous peoples was used. All over the world, these are the peoples who did not succumb and who have not allowed their own identity to be annihilated by the invading “superior” culture. They had their own means of coping and kept their culture intact. As William Henry Scott put it in his discussion on the creation of the minorities, they were the one who became “less and less like their own brothers who became more and more like their conquerors.” The indigenous peoples maintained their own whether or not they dealt with their conquerors – they carried who they are even if their counterparts allowed their own identity to be killed by their conquerors by making the conquered be like the conquerors` in the way they talk, wear clothes, eat and the way they do things. Not surprisingly, we read of Filipinos who want to become little brown Americans.
Thus, it is not surprising to hear people say that if you want to see the original Filipinos, see the indigenous peoples. One time when we visited a museum in Vigan, I was not surprised to see that their past is something that is similar to our slowly fading present. They also had coffins which were roughly carved from the tree trunk and the cover placed without nails. Their kitchen implements almost the same as the wooden implements used by our grandparents and even by us.
The indigenous peoples of today were like exotic animals of before when they were displayed in Madrid, Spain side by side with other creations in the 1800’s and again in the St. Louis Exposition in Pennsylvania in 1904. This was the conquerors way of declaring to the world that they have “tamed savages.” Though Igorots were not the only displayed “savage,” they were one of the most popular especially so because of their “dog-eating “ and gong-playing.
Yet the divide between the indigenous peoples and the mainstream Filipinos were only created when we were conquered. In other words, there were no indigenous peoples then, everybody was indigenous in their own place. The coming of the colonizers changed the course of their history and even of their perspectives. Their lowland brothers also started hating them for some reasons as the being the cause of the death of their loved ones who helped the Spaniards in their attempt to subjugate the mountains and their dwellers. This started their deep seated hatred which was passed on from generations to come and which were enunciated in so many ways as in their literature like in Biag ni Lam-ang, of which Biag accordingly came from the mountains in revenge for his father and took a bath at Amburayan river poisoning all the fishes therewith. Or, in statements as, “naka-ang-angdod ka, kasla ka Igorot.” Or, the fact alone that the mountain people were seen and treated like they were of the lower form of human beings. And sometimes due to their geographical situation was marginalized even from government services.
In the early 1900’s the Americans called for all Filipinos to have their lands titled. Since no one in the whole Cordillera had their land titled, due most probably to ignorance of the importance of papers, the whole region was considered alienable and disposable and owned by the government. This is no different from the Regalian doctrine applied by the Spaniards of which every piece of land is owned by the king and the king has all the full authority to determine how it is to be disposed. Thus, when Legaspi was finally able to conquer some portions of the Philippines, the whole country was awarded to him and he on the other hand awarded his loyal, gallant soldiers giving Salcedo the whole of Vigan and de Goiti the whole of Manila.
Land to the Igorots and to most indigenous peoples is not just a commodity. It is very much a part of their identity and their life. Land to them is sacred. This uncommodified view of the land was contrary to the Regalian Doctrine policy and how it was regenerated into the different policies implemented through the years. Thus, the artificial divide was nurtured instead of being corrected.
A Presidential Decree signed by then President Ferdinand Marcos even stated that all land areas with an 18 degree slope is owned by the government. This practically means that the people of the Cordilleras own no land and it is a blatant non-recognition of the existence of the indigenous peoples in the place. And since the land is owned by the government, it can do anything with it and all resources found within. Thanks to people like Macli-ing Dulag and all his contemporaries and predecessors who continuously fought for the Cordilleras and its resources.
Aside from the land though, is the very issue of them being questioned for who they are as Carlos P. Romulo once put it, “Igorots are not Filipinos,” which when looked closely can be right as history tells us but also at the same time wrong. Anyway, this self-search for identity resulted to Igorots denying their own identity of being people from the mountains as the term denotes but at the same time for people from Mountain Province boldly stating that they are the Igorots even as others would rather be called and be known of their own particular place like Ifugao or Kalinga.
Yet, this marginalization due to identity continued in these present times in forms as the statement of Candy Pangilinan (?) in Baguio City, “Tao ako, di ako Igorot.” I cannot fully blame her rather I blame all of us, the society and the institutions that continuously perpetuate the perspectives of division. This includes the schools which never corrected such a thought. The schools which should have been the first one to check the notion have not done so. The school, as DepEd Secretary Luistro pointed out in one of his speeches, is guilty of doing injustice to the indigenous peoples and should be the first to check this injustice that it had done.
So, the fight of the indigenous peoples to be recognized and be heard continues. Their exercise of their self-determination, if they have already realized it as a community, is being tested. These are just some of the roles of indigenous peoples education. Aside from teaching the fast fading IKSPs, IPEd also makes the community do a self-reflection, check what they already have and what they will still have to work for, make a convergence of the local and Western knowledge to come up with a better output, make their own formal and informal situational analysis and plan based on that, explicitly integrate the school in the community as education is not only the responsibility of the school but the accountability of all. IPED also recognizes the wisdom that had been an offshoot of the interaction of our ancestors with that of the ancestral domain.
In Mountain province, Indigenous Peoples Education works on four main domains as shown in the illustration below.
As shown above, the IPEd of Mountain Province to produce culturally rooted and globally competent graduates have to address Access, Quality and Efficiency in four areas which are Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation; Curriculum Development, Instruction & Education Resources; Governance and Policy Development; and IP Partners and Stakeholders. It has the following objectives for each area. Below are the four areas with its objectives and corresponding activities.
A. Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
Institutionalized community partnership and right-based approach in educational research and planning.
• Training on AD-Based SIP
• Crafting of AD-Based School Improvement Plans involving the ICCs using the Rights-based approach
• Review of the Division Education Development Plan with the ICCs using the Rights-Based Approach
• Review of the Division Education Development Plan with the ICCs using the Rights-Based Approach
• Analysis and utilization of the IPEd Baseline Data Gathered
•
Prepared M & E tools that are culture-sensitive and culturally appropriate in assessing and evaluating IPEd accomplishments in the whole schools division.
• Formulation of IPEd M and E team that would include ICC representatives.
• Craft appropriate M and E tools that would measure IPEd progress
• Analyze M & E results for planning and development purposes
B. Curriculum Development, Instruction, Education Resources and Facilities
Indigenized curriculum that is culturally responsive, sensitive and appropriate in all subject areas in all grade levels.
Utilized the Ancestral Domain as a classroom in itself and indigenous strategies of teaching and learning that is responsive and designed in relation to the uniqueness and particularities of IP communities.
Developed indigenized teaching and learning resources.
Prepared contextualized IMs in K to 12 in all grade levels in all learning areas.
Utilized fully the LRMDC/S.
Preserve and conserve resources in the Ancestral Domain that have educational value.
• Finalization and utilization of the IPEd Curriculum Framework
• Indigenization of the Curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 1-3 and 7-8
• Research and documentation of IP communities history and development
• Assessment and evaluation of indigenized Grades 1-3 and 7-8
• Indigenization of the curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 4-6 and 9-10
• Research and documentation of ILS and IKSPs of all MP IP communities
• Assessment and evaluation of indigenized Grades 4-6 and 9-10
• Indigenization of the curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 11-12
• Teachers effectively use the Ancestral Domain as a classroom in itself
• Effective use of teachers of indigenous strategies of teaching and ILS
• Establishment of IP centers in all communities
• Produced and uploaded LRMDS quality assured IMs/LMs.
• Identification of and planning for preservation and/ or conservation of AD resources that have educational value
• Preparation of Local Standards based on local situation on identified national standards that are not appropriate in the locality
• Utilization of the resources
C. Governance and Policy Development
Institutionalized mechanisms, structures, processes and policies that would make IPEd operational.
• Making of processes and policies that would make IPEd operational
• Prepare appropriate MOA with NCIP concerning FPIC concerns on researches and documentations specifically for IPED
• Revisiting the Social Contract with the ICCs
Established FPIC protocols in the division and per district.
• Establishment of the Council of Elders for IPEd in schools, districts and division
Established organizational structure on IPEd in the districts, schools and communities.
• Designation of IPEd Coordinators in the Division, District and Schools
• Involvement and empowerment of all partners and stakeholders in all educational processes
• Conduct of the IPED congress.
D. Partners and Stakeholders
Capacitate duty bearers, partners and stakeholders for effective implementation of IPEd.
• Mass Orientation Workshop for Teachers on IP Education content and implementation
• Conduct of information, education campaign for IPEd in the grassroots
• Retooling of Teachers and School Heads
Involve and empower partners and stakeholders in education processes.
Yet, DepEd cannot move forward with IPEd if the community is not with it. Thus, IPEd is the accountability of all and IPEd is here for all of us not as an educational panacea but as a chance to have our voices be heard and be recognized in our educational system as a means to further improve our services to our stakeholders.
Prepared: Irene Angway, DepEd-MP IPEd Coordinator
In the context of Mountain Province and even the Cordillera Administrative Region, IPEd is K to 12 itself. K to 12 was purposely designed to be contextualized, to make it relevant and appropriate to wherever it will be brought to within the country. Putting it loosely, when it is brought to the Bicolanos and it is contextualized by them, then it is Bicolano education; when it is contextualized by the Ilocanos, then it becomes Ilocano education. In other words, K to 12 is likened to a chameleon, while it changes colors to blend in it is still the same K to 12 that DepEd is implementing. It is not being done correctly then if it is not contextualized to be suited to the local scenario. It adheres and strongly includes and implements the principles of appropriateness to its direct client.
It recognizes the importance of the much-debated Mother-tongue. It recognized that English and Filipino are not the only school languages but even our own and that our own language is not just a dialect after all. It respected the very basic fact that learning can still be effective even if we start with our own and that our own language is that important also.
The Japanese, Koreans and Chinese all mastered their own languages. Seldom do you meet any of them with perfectly good English but they have the skills to live by. Now, they are soaring in the field of technology while we are still wallowing in our own limitations like our inability to speak perfectly good English and our inability to use our own acquired knowledge to improve our technology. While making watches and using solar cells seem to be a plaything to high school Japanese students, our own graduate students still have a hard time distinguishing the proper way to connect wires. Indeed, we can in general speak better English but what have we got after that?
So, I disagree when people look down on the use of Mother-tongue fearing that their children will know less. For sure, it will be the opposite. Having monitored the implementation of Mother-tongue, I do agree to its effectiveness on developing the higher order thinking skills of the learners. The children can think and answer without inhibitions questions as , “Why do you think so? , How come that came about? How do you think will this end? How could we make it better?” and so on and so forth – questions they can hardly answer if asked in 2nd languages as English and Filipino. This is so because, the language barrier was already transcended with Mother-tongue, making the learners more active and thus, developing confidence in their own selves. I have also encountered experiences as learners who were taught to speak in other languages without being taught their own language. Mother-tongue time is also a time for them to come in touch with their own language, with their own identity for language carries with it the soul of your own ethnicity. With Mother-tongue, the learners will establish their own identity and know their own selves better minus the confusions of the importance of their own. Mother-tongue is IPEd in itself. Slowly, as the years go by, these learners are introduced to other languages and if they are already confident on their own, the entrance of the other languages will be easier. Indeed Mother-tongue is developing the 3=Cs which are confidence, comprehension and cultural identity of the learners.
Further, DepEd-CAR as, through the leadership of the Regional Director Ellen B. Donato, exercised its self-determination made a move at the Central Office that if they want the principles of Mother-tongue to really be successful, they have to recognize other languages in the locality aside from the major ones – and, it was granted. A move was also made to try to reconsider the Roxas law on the DepEd Planning Standards. Thus, IPEd really cause each of the duty bearers to reflect and see how they can help improve the services being rendered.
Relevance and appropriateness are some of K to 12’s guiding principles. Without contextualizing or indigenizing K to 2, it will not therefore be relevant and appropriate. Our children will be lost in the classroom and will be lost further outside the classroom. What they learned inside the classroom would seem to be inapplicable outside. Concepts and principles will all be abstract good only for the classroom.
Out of pure irritation and frustration, I once asked my College Algebra instructor why we have to learn all the x and y when the truth is we use real numbers. Her answer further erased my interest since she does not also know (But maybe she was also taken aback by my question that she did not have time enough to think of it.) why the administration offers that to us. If the Algebra teacher cannot answer a simple question as that taking into consideration that they are the very first ones who can understand the concepts of x and y, how could we expect the learners to appreciate and understand it?
Almost two years ago, I was one of the few who were able to observe a class on Algebra at PAMANAKA, a private school established purposely to offer appropriate and relevant education to the Mangyans in Occidental Mindoro. The class was on Mathematics yet they started it by talking about the kaingin for a few minutes. Then the teacher asked them what signs would tell them that the fruits of their labors are about to be harvested. My ears became more attentive. There was a flow of answers like “bitak sa lupa” (they were learning Math in Filipino). Then the teacher asked, if they can count the “bitak sa lupa?” The learners answered, “Opo” pwede daw nila itong bilangin. The teacher continued with if there are five (5) “bitak sa lupa”{ the teacher wrote 5 on the board and drew a simple illustration of land with camote and 5 “bitak sa lupa), can we count the how many camote are inside? Of course, the learners answered no. So, she continued with, since we can count 5 but we cannot count the camote inside, then we represent the camote as x so now we have an example of a monomial which is 5x. Again she asked, is there a possibility that if we have dug the first layer, there will still be a second layer of camote? Since the learners answered that it is possible, she continued the equation with 5x + x which is still monomial since it is still of the same product. Then she asked them what else can show the same sign as “bitak sa lupa” when it is to be harvested? They answered kamoteng kahoy. With that, she continued the equation, if there are 3 “bitak sa lupa” then we have 5x + x + 3y which is now a binomial. She explained further that it has to be y or another letter different from x since it is a different product. The realization hit me that if my Math teacher would have taught us this way, then Math would not have been so difficult to understand since I would have seen its relevance to my immediate life. That while I would have been doing my chores, I’d see that in the end, it is not really abstract for it is something very praxis and for sure I would not have asked that question years ago.
In Araling Panlipunan/HEKASI, the children learned all kinds of heroes outside their own place. They have memorized Rizal, Bonifacio, del Pilar but none of their own and that some were not even told that they can also be heroes in their own ways. Thus sadly, we can’t help overhearing statements from learners as, “I don’t want to be a hero for heroes die,” or “He can’t be a hero, he’s not in the book.” Sometimes, the hidden curriculum is stronger than what we really want to teach.
Further, we knew of the Bataan defense during World War II but have we ever realized that there were Igorots who were part of the forces that defended that place? Only a handful even knew how gallantly our Igorot ancestors fought with their g-strings climbing tanks to put bombs inside. Yet, no other than General McArthur noted this down. Emilio Aguinaldo did not just fly from Tirad Pass to Palanan, Isabela. He had been roaming in Mountain Province, Ifugao and Kalinga before he reached Palanan but we were never taught this. We knew of Biak-na-bato but we were lost in our own. Now, K to 12 as IPEd is forcing us to look into our own.
The Mathematics Education Program Supervisor of Cagayan de Oro during their IPEd benchmarking in Mountain Province did not fail to appreciate our rice terraces and toping as an application of Mathematics and Engineering skills but we have not looked into it that way. In fact, one engineer from the locality even questioned why Sadanga NHS still teaches toping yet we already have cement and steel bars. But this reaction comes when we ourselves do not see and appreciate our own. IPEd then marries the Western knowledge and the indigenous knowledge together so that while we appreciate the Western knowledge, we also see how our ancestors applied such and that though they have not written down their theories and laws, they have applied them.
I have heard from one elder from our hometown that Jesus summarized the 10 commandments into two but we have summarized it into one word and the word was INAYAN. It took some time for his words to sink in because I tried looking into the different angles of how inayan is used. I was surprised to realize that he was right that if we apply inayan in our lives, we will be pleasing in God’s sight and living in harmony with man.
Culture before it becomes what it is underwent processes including research, though for sure were not written as we do now. If we try to imagine, how do you think did our ancestors discover some fruits, plants, mushrooms to be edible while others are not? For sure, they have done observations, they have tried trial-and-error methods, they have experienced eating them, too. And, when it was good, they made it a part of their diet and when not, either they check further on it or they abandon it for food purposes.
The point is that contextualization is still the call of times. If we are teaching K to 12 exactly working only on the content placed in the Teachers’ Manual, we are not doing it correctly. We then need to re-examine ourselves as teacher duty-bearers and as IPs if we are. We therefore need to again go back to our own K to 12 manuals and study them and also read RA 10533 which is the K to 12 Law as well as look into its Implementing Rules and Regulations
IPEd in Mountain Province is not the sole responsibility of DepEd, it is the accountability of all, the community especially of the elders; DepEd as the teachers, administrators and all other personnel; and the stakeholders which includes the parents, LGUs, other government agencies. The fire to do IPEd is because of the community’s aspirations for appropriate education, K to 12, and IPRA. In the course of discourse the Mountain Province Indigenous Peoples Education Framework was formed which are as stated below.
1. MP-IPEd is contextualized K to 12. K to 12 is designed in a way that it has to be localized to be learner-centered, responsive, culture-sensitive, culture-based, relevant and appropriate to the receivers that while they develop 21st skills, they also develop their cultural rootedness and identity.
2. MP-IPEd is participative, inclusive and empowering (PIE). IPs are not only consulted but are involved from the start to the end educational processes. They are part of the processes, making them partners and empowering them to make their own decisions as they contribute to Indigenous Peoples Education.
Further discussions and workshops on what participative, inclusive and empowering means for DepEd-MP resulted to the following:
Inclusive
• It is inclusive because it includes both IP and non-IP learners in Mountain Province.
• It includes IP partners and stakeholders from the crafting, implementation up to the monitoring and evaluation of the IPED Framework.
• It includes different formal, ALS, ADMs and informal learning modalities.
• It is not coercive for non-IPs. Non-IPs, and sometimes even IPs in the domain will learn but are not forced to adopt to the IP beliefs, customary laws and practices of their place.
Participative
• IPED is a concern of every IP in Mountain Province from the crafting, advocacy, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• The extent of participation on the part of non-DepED IPs of Mt Province include conducting research on IKSPs, validation and even in delivery of instruction with the spirit of volunteerism.
Empowering. Every IP has the chance to be heard in decision-making. This helps them to be assertive of their rights to self-determination but without stepping at others in the process.
3. MP-IPEd is founded on the clear and common understanding of the key documents and elements that are fundamental basis of IPED (DO 62, RA 8371, AD, RA 10533). It is important that there is a clear and common understanding of the legal bases of IPED. RA 8371, DO 62, s. 2011 and RA 10533 are mandates of the NCIP and DepED, respectively. AD should also be understood, i.e. it is not just territory but its whole component. IPED has also a clear understanding on the written culture which is fundamental basis but documents should therefore be validated.
4. MP-IPEd is founded on the Ancestral Domain. IPED is rooted in the ancestral domain. In the K to 12 words, it is culture-based. AD includes land, air, water (surface and beneath), spirits, beliefs, value systems, practices, relationsips and others. IPED does not only concentrate on the products of the culture like dances and songs but should dig into the roots of products such as the philosophies and principles of the community.
CULTURE AND IPs
Culture, as illustrated above, is the product of the interactions of man. From these interactions, they have come into terms with their own experiences which were solidified into the IKSPs which when made alive through practice is what we now call as culture. Sometimes these IKSPs were considered superstitious by the Western point of view but these are based on solid experiences and experimentations conducted in the process of learning. The cultural practices are just manifestations of these experiences.
If in the course of contextualization, we only look into the fruits, then slowly the culture fades. The culture-based curriculum should then include the world views and philosophies of the IPs themselves, not only those that are superficial.
5. MP-IPEd puts emphasis on the functional picture of the AD before and today. To benchmark, a situational analysis on the AD during the pre-colonial era and the post-colonial times was done. It is therefore the umili who will judge their own culture and check what is to be retained and what is to be changed. What should be taught and what is to be stopped. IPEd is not going back to the olden times, it is making us better people instead by benchmarking on what we are now, reflecting on how we could be better as we live who we are, our own identity proudly without pretense. Further, it brings out respect of others, respect of our own, respect of the culture of other people that the real understanding of equality be exercised.
6. MP-IPEd gives significance to the understanding of the dynamics of change, AD understanding of development and its impact. Change is inevitable thus, IPED is not placed tightly in a box. Rather, it is open to appropriate change and the developments it brings which are in consonance with the Ancestral Domain understanding and dynamics of change. AD understanding of development may not be similar with the understanding in the Western world, like high towering buildings but rather a holistic abundance of health, love, support, food, strength for the individual and the family which in Western Mountain Province are contained in words as masika-sika, ipeyas. But, it shall be open to change through acculturation but never assimilation.
Acculturation is the intercultural borrowing marked by continuous transmission of traits and elements between diverse peoples resulting in new and blended patterns (Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary, 1961). With acculturation, both the accepting culture and the accepted culture are being respected. The accepted culture does not dominate but rather interacts with the accepting culture. Example here is the use of bagoong that blended naturally with the lemons of the mountains. While we accepted the use of the t-shirts and pants, we have not totally forgotten the use of our tapis and g-strings.
Assimilation, on the other hand, is a sociocultural fusion wherein individuals and groups of differing ethnic heritage acquire the basic habits, attitudes and mode of life of the embracing national culture (Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary, 1961). In other words, one culture is forgotten in the process of embracing the other culture. This is on the thought that the culture being introduced and embraced is better than the culture being left. This usually happens when the embracing individual does not have a solid appreciation of his/her own identity. Thus, it would be easier for him/her to embrace the “dominant” culture so as to escape criticisms for being “different.” Assimilation does not respect the other culture. It propagates the thought that one is better thus results to discrimination which may even be deadly. World History showed examples of these as the genocides that happened during the World War I and II, the organization and activities of the Ku Klux Klan, the name Burma which was then changed to Myanmar, the fight led by Martin Luther King, etc. Yet, our own locality harbors many examples, too – a shame that did not really come out from what we have done but rather from being who we are and not appreciating who we are which later on resulted to some actions as not teaching our children our own mother tongue, not appreciating our own “inatep/ ferey,” labeling others who are darker in skin and appreciating the lighter ones as well as trying our best to use whiteners to have a lighter shade.
7. MP-IPEd is ancestral domain-based with the ancestral domain as the unit of planning (reference point). The ancestral domain is the unit of planning and it is the foundation of Indigenous Peoples Education in Mountain Province. Thus, Mountain Province is to prepare their School Improvement Plan integrating the school in the bigger picture, the ancestral domain. Though admittedly, the school had always been recognized to have been playing an important role in the society, now it will not plan independently but will plan as an organic part of the ili and not only based on the situation of the school per se but including the ancestral domain.
8. MP-IPEd encompasses three modes of education delivery which is through the formal (Kinder to Grade 12), Alternative Learning System (ALS) and the Ancestral Domain Education (ADEd). Formal learning is embodied in the Kinder to Grade 12 but teachers will not only focus on developing the competencies without having to contextualize. K to 12 is basically designed to be contextualized in the local situation, thus, not contextualizing the content and competencies of K to 12 means the duty-bearers are not doing K to 12 as planned. If the learner goes out of the classroom and thinks that what he/she learned therein is not applicable in his or her own locality, then we have failed as educators in the delivery of the mandates of K to 12. This is also true with the Alternative Learning System. The ADEd is not really new since it had been the ways of our ancestors in passing on their competencies and wisdom to the young. This does not have a definite face yet. But, it includes all the indigenous learning systems (ILS) that happen in the “ili” including the way the young acquires the learning. When the young follows his/her mother to the farm even as young as five years old, and helps in ways as picking and cleaning the camote, is not child labor – rather it had always been our ancestors’ way of teaching us that work is a part of us and not to be detested for it is also at these times that the young understands the value of life, work, food production, environment all packaged into one. Joining community activities and sitting with the elders are ADEd activities. Storytelling through narratives, parables and fables, anecdotes; demonstration; learning-by-doing or actual work; observation; participation/ involvement are just some of the methods and strategies that they had been using for so many generations and which are still being used even until these days. Though much of the MP-IP literature had been passed orally either through songs, narratives like genealogy, storytelling, they had stuck to the olds but the young now who were educated seldom developed their innate orality thus are relying on their literacy.
9. MP-IPEd is rights-based with the IPs as the rights bearer and DepEd and the community as the duty-bearer.
The right to be educated is owned by the indigenous peoples but this right is to be delivered by the duty bearers. The duty-bearers, on the other hand, who are composed of DepEd (teachers, school heads, supervisors and all other personnel) and the IPs themselves especially the elders as IPED in Mountain Province is a partnership of the IPs and DepEd, have the responsibility, if not the burden, to deliver appropriate education to the rights-bearers. Delivering IP education therefore, cannot be done by DepEd alone but rather by all people in the community especially the elders.
10. MP-IPEd is a partnership of DepEd and the IPs themselves. IPEd shall not push through without DepEd, or without the IPs. It is an endeavor of both. While DepEd works on its mandate to deliver appropriate education especially in the formal and ALS education, the IPs have that burning passion to pass on what makes them as a people to the next generation in partnership with DepEd and through the Ancestral Domain Education itself. Further, there shall be an IPEd Council of Elders and Council of Stakeholders in the provincial level that shall be organized to help DepEd implement IPEd. The IPEd Council of Elders is organized per school or per barangay or per ili relative to appropriate conditions of the concerned schools. If the schools located in a barangay are near each other and have the same elders involved then the schools can have just one IPEd Council of Elders but if the schools in the same barangay are really far from each other, then it would be practical to have one IPEd Council of Elders for one school. Likewise, all other stakeholders of the school like the LGUs, parents, teachers, learners, Civil Society Organization, other government agencies, alumni, etc shall likewise be the Council of Stakeholders.
11. MP-IPEd is part of the assertion of the MPs of Mountain Province for self-determination. IPEd is free from the dictates of outsiders. It is an assertion of the self-determination of the indigenous peoples in Mountain Province, thus, indigenous peoples education is to be defined and decided by them. IPEd then is their window of claiming who they are (identity) as they decide and act appropriately for what is best for their ancestral domain.
Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) may be new to our ears but it had been ongoing in other countries, including the Philippines, for many years already. For the Philippines, the oldest established school that is doing indigenous peoples education is the Kalahan Academy of Imugan, Sta. Fe. Other schools such as Pamanaka of the Mangyans in Mindoro, School of Living Traditions in Mindanao and others only came later.
In a study recently conducted by the University of the Philippines, Indigenous Peoples Education is being done in the Philippines in many ways as insertion of cultural elements, addition of a new subject focused on IKSPs, integration in the curriculum, integration with an additional subject and the last one is an IP curriculum based on the community activities.
Insertion of cultural elements is plainly using IKSPs as examples or being mentioned but the IKSP is not being discussed thoroughly to be understood. It is plainly being inserted like being used in a sentence. Some schools made it into another subject area but the danger of this is that the hidden curriculum might be that IKSPs are just separate from the whole curriculum. Integration is looking into the DepEd competencies and entry points of IKSPs in it. So the IKSPs and the DepEd competencies blend together. However, others still included integration as well as adding another subject purposely for IKSP discussions. Lastly, IP curriculum is based on the community life cycle and the DepEd competencies are integrated into the curriculum. This is the opposite of integration because in integration, the basis for what should be included and what should be left out are the DepEd competencies but in the IP curriculum the basis is the community life cycle and the DepEd competencies are included where they are relevant. What Mountain Province attempted in the indigenization of their curriculum is integration but some efforts are trying to explore IP curriculum.
Integration will show that our ancestors also developed Science, Math, Araling Panlipunan, TLE, language, Values Education, MAPEH but they are not boxed as such. These are not separate from each other like in doing toping or mountain engineering as named by DepEd. In toping, they do Math, they socialize, they have applied values, they do livelihood, they test their strength and stamina, they do Physics, they communicate so they touch all subject areas because in reality life is not boxed in subject areas but are rather rolled into one. Thus, one IKSP can be touched in all subject areas. So, as prescribed by DepEd-Cordillera Administrative Region, IKSPs should be taught using thematic approach. It is not surprising then that sample curriculum webs were prepared by the Education Program Supervisors in all divisions in CAR for the teachers.
Yet, one still wonders why we are called indigenous peoples which seem to be separating us from the other peoples. For lack of a collective term to describe us and our counterparts in the whole world, indigenous peoples was used. All over the world, these are the peoples who did not succumb and who have not allowed their own identity to be annihilated by the invading “superior” culture. They had their own means of coping and kept their culture intact. As William Henry Scott put it in his discussion on the creation of the minorities, they were the one who became “less and less like their own brothers who became more and more like their conquerors.” The indigenous peoples maintained their own whether or not they dealt with their conquerors – they carried who they are even if their counterparts allowed their own identity to be killed by their conquerors by making the conquered be like the conquerors` in the way they talk, wear clothes, eat and the way they do things. Not surprisingly, we read of Filipinos who want to become little brown Americans.
Thus, it is not surprising to hear people say that if you want to see the original Filipinos, see the indigenous peoples. One time when we visited a museum in Vigan, I was not surprised to see that their past is something that is similar to our slowly fading present. They also had coffins which were roughly carved from the tree trunk and the cover placed without nails. Their kitchen implements almost the same as the wooden implements used by our grandparents and even by us.
The indigenous peoples of today were like exotic animals of before when they were displayed in Madrid, Spain side by side with other creations in the 1800’s and again in the St. Louis Exposition in Pennsylvania in 1904. This was the conquerors way of declaring to the world that they have “tamed savages.” Though Igorots were not the only displayed “savage,” they were one of the most popular especially so because of their “dog-eating “ and gong-playing.
Yet the divide between the indigenous peoples and the mainstream Filipinos were only created when we were conquered. In other words, there were no indigenous peoples then, everybody was indigenous in their own place. The coming of the colonizers changed the course of their history and even of their perspectives. Their lowland brothers also started hating them for some reasons as the being the cause of the death of their loved ones who helped the Spaniards in their attempt to subjugate the mountains and their dwellers. This started their deep seated hatred which was passed on from generations to come and which were enunciated in so many ways as in their literature like in Biag ni Lam-ang, of which Biag accordingly came from the mountains in revenge for his father and took a bath at Amburayan river poisoning all the fishes therewith. Or, in statements as, “naka-ang-angdod ka, kasla ka Igorot.” Or, the fact alone that the mountain people were seen and treated like they were of the lower form of human beings. And sometimes due to their geographical situation was marginalized even from government services.
In the early 1900’s the Americans called for all Filipinos to have their lands titled. Since no one in the whole Cordillera had their land titled, due most probably to ignorance of the importance of papers, the whole region was considered alienable and disposable and owned by the government. This is no different from the Regalian doctrine applied by the Spaniards of which every piece of land is owned by the king and the king has all the full authority to determine how it is to be disposed. Thus, when Legaspi was finally able to conquer some portions of the Philippines, the whole country was awarded to him and he on the other hand awarded his loyal, gallant soldiers giving Salcedo the whole of Vigan and de Goiti the whole of Manila.
Land to the Igorots and to most indigenous peoples is not just a commodity. It is very much a part of their identity and their life. Land to them is sacred. This uncommodified view of the land was contrary to the Regalian Doctrine policy and how it was regenerated into the different policies implemented through the years. Thus, the artificial divide was nurtured instead of being corrected.
A Presidential Decree signed by then President Ferdinand Marcos even stated that all land areas with an 18 degree slope is owned by the government. This practically means that the people of the Cordilleras own no land and it is a blatant non-recognition of the existence of the indigenous peoples in the place. And since the land is owned by the government, it can do anything with it and all resources found within. Thanks to people like Macli-ing Dulag and all his contemporaries and predecessors who continuously fought for the Cordilleras and its resources.
Aside from the land though, is the very issue of them being questioned for who they are as Carlos P. Romulo once put it, “Igorots are not Filipinos,” which when looked closely can be right as history tells us but also at the same time wrong. Anyway, this self-search for identity resulted to Igorots denying their own identity of being people from the mountains as the term denotes but at the same time for people from Mountain Province boldly stating that they are the Igorots even as others would rather be called and be known of their own particular place like Ifugao or Kalinga.
Yet, this marginalization due to identity continued in these present times in forms as the statement of Candy Pangilinan (?) in Baguio City, “Tao ako, di ako Igorot.” I cannot fully blame her rather I blame all of us, the society and the institutions that continuously perpetuate the perspectives of division. This includes the schools which never corrected such a thought. The schools which should have been the first one to check the notion have not done so. The school, as DepEd Secretary Luistro pointed out in one of his speeches, is guilty of doing injustice to the indigenous peoples and should be the first to check this injustice that it had done.
So, the fight of the indigenous peoples to be recognized and be heard continues. Their exercise of their self-determination, if they have already realized it as a community, is being tested. These are just some of the roles of indigenous peoples education. Aside from teaching the fast fading IKSPs, IPEd also makes the community do a self-reflection, check what they already have and what they will still have to work for, make a convergence of the local and Western knowledge to come up with a better output, make their own formal and informal situational analysis and plan based on that, explicitly integrate the school in the community as education is not only the responsibility of the school but the accountability of all. IPED also recognizes the wisdom that had been an offshoot of the interaction of our ancestors with that of the ancestral domain.
In Mountain province, Indigenous Peoples Education works on four main domains as shown in the illustration below.
As shown above, the IPEd of Mountain Province to produce culturally rooted and globally competent graduates have to address Access, Quality and Efficiency in four areas which are Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation; Curriculum Development, Instruction & Education Resources; Governance and Policy Development; and IP Partners and Stakeholders. It has the following objectives for each area. Below are the four areas with its objectives and corresponding activities.
A. Research, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
Institutionalized community partnership and right-based approach in educational research and planning.
• Training on AD-Based SIP
• Crafting of AD-Based School Improvement Plans involving the ICCs using the Rights-based approach
• Review of the Division Education Development Plan with the ICCs using the Rights-Based Approach
• Review of the Division Education Development Plan with the ICCs using the Rights-Based Approach
• Analysis and utilization of the IPEd Baseline Data Gathered
•
Prepared M & E tools that are culture-sensitive and culturally appropriate in assessing and evaluating IPEd accomplishments in the whole schools division.
• Formulation of IPEd M and E team that would include ICC representatives.
• Craft appropriate M and E tools that would measure IPEd progress
• Analyze M & E results for planning and development purposes
B. Curriculum Development, Instruction, Education Resources and Facilities
Indigenized curriculum that is culturally responsive, sensitive and appropriate in all subject areas in all grade levels.
Utilized the Ancestral Domain as a classroom in itself and indigenous strategies of teaching and learning that is responsive and designed in relation to the uniqueness and particularities of IP communities.
Developed indigenized teaching and learning resources.
Prepared contextualized IMs in K to 12 in all grade levels in all learning areas.
Utilized fully the LRMDC/S.
Preserve and conserve resources in the Ancestral Domain that have educational value.
• Finalization and utilization of the IPEd Curriculum Framework
• Indigenization of the Curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 1-3 and 7-8
• Research and documentation of IP communities history and development
• Assessment and evaluation of indigenized Grades 1-3 and 7-8
• Indigenization of the curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 4-6 and 9-10
• Research and documentation of ILS and IKSPs of all MP IP communities
• Assessment and evaluation of indigenized Grades 4-6 and 9-10
• Indigenization of the curriculum in all subject areas in Grades 11-12
• Teachers effectively use the Ancestral Domain as a classroom in itself
• Effective use of teachers of indigenous strategies of teaching and ILS
• Establishment of IP centers in all communities
• Produced and uploaded LRMDS quality assured IMs/LMs.
• Identification of and planning for preservation and/ or conservation of AD resources that have educational value
• Preparation of Local Standards based on local situation on identified national standards that are not appropriate in the locality
• Utilization of the resources
C. Governance and Policy Development
Institutionalized mechanisms, structures, processes and policies that would make IPEd operational.
• Making of processes and policies that would make IPEd operational
• Prepare appropriate MOA with NCIP concerning FPIC concerns on researches and documentations specifically for IPED
• Revisiting the Social Contract with the ICCs
Established FPIC protocols in the division and per district.
• Establishment of the Council of Elders for IPEd in schools, districts and division
Established organizational structure on IPEd in the districts, schools and communities.
• Designation of IPEd Coordinators in the Division, District and Schools
• Involvement and empowerment of all partners and stakeholders in all educational processes
• Conduct of the IPED congress.
D. Partners and Stakeholders
Capacitate duty bearers, partners and stakeholders for effective implementation of IPEd.
• Mass Orientation Workshop for Teachers on IP Education content and implementation
• Conduct of information, education campaign for IPEd in the grassroots
• Retooling of Teachers and School Heads
Involve and empower partners and stakeholders in education processes.
Yet, DepEd cannot move forward with IPEd if the community is not with it. Thus, IPEd is the accountability of all and IPEd is here for all of us not as an educational panacea but as a chance to have our voices be heard and be recognized in our educational system as a means to further improve our services to our stakeholders.
Prepared: Irene Angway, DepEd-MP IPEd Coordinator
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