IPED Coffee Table Book Launched

In a fitting ceremony last week, DepEd CAR launched a book containing the efforts of the region towards a culture-based and culture-responsive Indigenous Peoples Education (IPED).

As one of the highlights of this year’s Regional Basic Education Congress held at the DepEd CAR compound, Wangal, La Trinidad, Benguet on October 7 to 9, the book launching was well attended by educators and stakeholders across the region.

According to DepEd CAR Regional Director Ellen B. Donato, the book includes a look into the education system of our ancestors and its relation to the efforts today to recognize these systems.

Donato also expressed that the chapters of the book is likened to the agricultural cycle we are rooted from and is consistent with the IPED Roadmap the department if going through.

Aptly titled, “This is Home”, the book tells about coming home and becoming who we are as indigenous peoples in the region.

The book comprises narratives and side stories of efforts being undertaken at the region, division and school level.

Chapter one entitled “Remembering Our Home” gives an overview of how the Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs) came to be in the Cordillera region, including a discussion of their education processes and systems as well as the promulgation of Executive Order 220 that gave birth to the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and in turn, the creation of DepEd CAR.

The second chapter, “Preparing the Fields”, includes efforts undertaken during the early years of DepEd CAR from 1988 to 2010, legal bases such as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), Education For All (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) among others.

The third chapter, “Sowing the Seeds”, underscores reforms at the national level related to forwarding culture-responsive education. These reforms include the release of Department Order No. 62, s. 2011 also known as the Indigenous Peoples Education Policy Framework and Department Order No. 76, s. 2011 or the National Rollout of the Learning Resource Management and Development System (LRMDS) with CAR as one of the five recipients.

Dubbed, “Planting the Seedlings”, the fourth chapter highlights the department’s immersion with IP communities within and outside the region, piloting of LRMDS, implementation of the Philippines’ Response to Indigenous Peoples’ and Muslim Education (PRIME) program and Monitoring, Evaluation and Plan Adjustment (MEPA) mechanism.

The final chapter, “Nurturing the Rice Fields”, covers the general direction of IPED from 2013 onwards with the set mechanisms and processes foundational for its implementation. It also includes activities of the council of elders, training of schools with 100 percent IP enrolment as well as the department’s participation in the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPCE).

The regional director hinted on a possible sequel which would entail the continuous efforts of the department in institutionalizing IPED or a contextualized K to 12 in CAR as a long-term thrust.