K to 12 and Indigenous Peoples Education )IPEd)

Bridge to Empower Philippines Education

                Education is one of the major concerns of almost all government of the world. It is an acceptable fact that through education and individual capable of learning can be taught to become a useful citizen. The progress towards development goals in the Philippines education expressed in many ways, the community and its immediate environment must be correlated and integrated.

                In education, new approaches are tried; appropriate and relevant strategies are used for effective learning. The continuous  innovations and changes in curriculum, the K to 12 and Indigenous Peoples Education are adapted to meet the challenges of modern times and bridge to empower Philippines education.

                As what Secretary of Education Bro. Armin A. Luistro said,” I don’t know how critical we are of the education system… but that is the heart of the  K to 12 reform. We have been miseducated by a system that perpetuates cultural oppression which we need to change to undertake reforms. The heart of the K to 12 reforms  is about one’s culture, one’s sense of itself. The K to 12 is grounded on a conviction-IPs carry with wisdom mostly misunderstood. The K to 12 takes culture as a bedrock of education.”

                Ethnocide”… the loss of identity of a group of people with a distinct culture and identity because of policies that destroy their sources of livelihood, use of language, practice of their own system, traditions and crafts , religion, and beliefs. Looking back IPs and the school system, IPs perceived as having “no education”, indigenous knowledge seen as inferior, concerning school knowledge, the separation of learning from life.

                Sadly, general education system in the Philippines continues to the alienation of IPs to their roots, cultures and communities, and discrimination continues. Indigenous Peoples Knowledge System and Practices (IKSPs) are ignored, dismissed; or becoming worse, schooling erases IKSPs or contribute to its end. In many cases, schooling seen in conflict with life and community activities that are actually knotted with indigenous learning systems themselves.

                Listening to aspirations and assertions , education that is culturally-rooted, nurturing the identity, maintaining intergenerational ties aligned with maintaining the well-being of the ancestral domain. With ancestral domain and community at the center, in harmony with the community and life cycle seems to bridge to empower our educational system. K to 12 is culture-responsive and culture-sensitive moves on educational system that enables the stability and development of learning systems of and for IPs from within. This will be difficult unless we bring back the community and the learner at the center.

                The flexibility of the k to 12 Program is in keeping with the constitutional mandate of schools to encourage non-formal, informal and indigenous learning systems, as well as self-learning, independent, and out-of-school study programs particularly that those respond to community needs (Article XIV, sec. 2). It is integrative and contextualized, for holistic learning, subjects are taught using the interdisciplinary  and multidisciplinary approach that learners do not learn isolated facts and theories separated from their lives.

                In line with the country/s commitment to achieve its Education for All (EFA) targets and the Millennium  Development  Goals (MDGs), and in the chase of the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA), the DepEd is adopting the enclosed National Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) Policy Framework (DedpEd  Order No. 6, s.2011). The policy framework is intended to be a tool and eye opener for promoting shared accountability, engagement, and collaborative partnership among government. DepEd urges the strengthening of its policy on IP education and develop and implement an IP Education Program. This program subscribes to the rights-based approached, which gives primary importance to the principles of participation, inclusion, and empowerment.