PASIG CITY – In line with its thrust to promote culture-based education, the Department of Education (DepEd), through its Indigenous People...
PASIG CITY – In line with its thrust to promote culture-based education, the Department of Education (DepEd), through its Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) Program, continues to strengthen its engagement with Indigenous Peoples (IP) communities, especially in the contextualization of the K to 12 basic education curriculum. This effort seeks to insitutionalize sustained dialogue and collaboration with IP elders and other community representatives in ensuring that education programs are truly inclusive, culture-sensitive, and relevant to the aspirations of the IP community.
All regions with the presence of IP communities are rolling out the initiative to prepare indigenized lesson plans, starting with early grades, in the various IP communities all over the country. Recognizing the need to continuously build the capacity of its teachers, school heads, and other field personnel in competently engaging with IP communities in the kind of curriculum contextualization required by IPEd, DepEd continues to support capacity building activities, and consultative and curriculum development workshops with key IP elders. To date, a total of 7,767 public school teachers and school heads nationwide have undergone basic retooling on IPEd, which is the first phase of progressive capacity building for its school personnel.
To continuously support the implementation of plans and priorities on IPEd, especially at the field level, the DepEd has instituted a system of providing support to its regional and school division offices through the IPEd Program Support Fund (PSF), which is provided on an annual basis. Consistent with the Department’s mandate to provide quality basic education for all Filipinos, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones issued Department Order (DO) No. 3, series of 2017, or the Multi-Year Implementing Guidelines on the Allocation and Utilization of the Indigenous Peoples Education Program Support Fund on January 18, 2017.
The IPEd PSF enables its DepEd field offices to plan for and implement various activities aligned with the thrust of the IPEd Program to support our public schools and other education programs implemented by DepEd in making the curriculum culturally responsive and developing culturally appropriate learning resources. For FY 2017, the following regions are to be provided with PSF: I, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), II, III, IV-A, MIMAROPA, V, VI, VII, Negros Island Region (NIR), VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, and CARAGA.
The PSF shall be used for activities related to the following three thematic focus areas:
a.Curriculum and learning resources development that include but are not limited to the following activities: 1) curriculum contextualization and learning resources development sessions, consultations, and workshops of school and division personnel with IP elders, leaders, culture bearers, community representatives and other relevant stakeholders; and 2) production of learning materials with content duly validated with concerned IP communities and that have undergone quality assurance;
b.Capacity building that includes but is not limited to the following activities: 1) training/retooling of teachers and school heads for IPEd implementation; 2) workshop-sessions on Indigenous Learning Systems (ILS); 3) workshop-session on community engagement and partnership-building for IPEd; 4) technical assistance training for supervisors of schools and implementing IPEd; and
c.Education planning for IPEd at the division and school levels that includes but is not limited to the following activities: 1) training of school heads and supervisors on Culture-responsive/Ancestral Domain-based School Improvement Plan (SIP); 2) Training of supervisors for technical assistance on Culture-responsive/Ancestral Domain-based SIP; 3) Orientation/training of the School Planning Team and other stakeholders on Culture-responsive/Ancestral Domain-based SIP; 4) IPEd planning activities of Schools Division Offices and schools with IP learners.
The IPEd Program is DepEd’s response to the right of indigenous peoples to basic education that is responsive to their context, respects their identities, and promotes their indigenous knowledge, competencies, and other aspects of their cultural heritage.(DepEd)
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