[OPINION] More than access, what Indigenous Peoples Education has taught DepEd

In the early 1990s, the first Congressional Commission on Education, or EDCOM I, looked at the needs of what it called “special target clientele.” In recommendations that appear to refer to Indigenous learners and communities, EDCOM I was brief: provide resources to “tribal and mission schools,” develop “indigenous/appropriate instructional materials,” and train teachers to use them. This was not insignificant: it recognized needs the school system was not meeting. But, three decades later, one sees the limits of that framing. Indigenous Peoples Education, or IPEd, is not just about bringing schools, books, teachers, and classrooms to far-flung communities. It is about deeper questions: What kind of learning enables Indigenous children to remain rooted in who they are, while gaining competencies to move across different spaces without leaving their identity behind? How should education programs be pursued with Indigenous communities, in ways that interface with Indigenous Learning Systems rather than simply expecting communities to conform to a state-defined curriculum and education system? For years, that broader vision was carried mainly by Indigenous communities themselves, with mission and community-based schools, civil society organizations, and advocates. They opened spaces where the national curriculum could meet Indigenous knowledge, languages, histories, values, and ways of learning. These efforts challenged colonial habits: the privileging of school-based and textbook knowledge, the treatment of culture as an add-on, and the tendency to divide learning neatly into subjects. In Indigenous contexts, learning is often more holistic, woven through their ancestral domains, work, ritual, relationships, memory, and responsibility. I had the privilege of learning this directly when, during the term of Education Secretary Armin Luistro, I was tasked to lead the Department of Education’s work in setting up the National IPEd Program — a process guided largely by Indigenous communities themselves. I say “learning” deliberately, because the most important work was not for DepEd to develop a program for Indigenous Peoples; it was to listen and understand. Building on previous efforts, DepEd from 2010 to 2016 pursued a more deliberate relationship with Indigenous elders, leaders, community representatives, and IPEd practitioners. During this period, DepEd began putting in place a clearer framework, office, budget, and policies for IPEd. DepEd Order No. 62, issued in 2011, adopted the National IPEd Policy Framework. It placed participation, inclusion, empowerment, dialogue, and partnership at the center, and defined what a national IPEd program should cover. The Indigenous Peoples Education Office (IPsEO) gave the program a focal point inside the bureaucracy, while IPEd received an annual budget line item. In government, commitments have to be translated into structures, staff time, procedures, and funds. Otherwise, even beautiful policy language remains ceremonial. ALSO ON RAPPLER [Time Trowel] How to truly decolonize the Philippines’ educational system [OPINION] Mother Tongue-based education and our Indigenous Peoples [OPINION] IKSP ay KSP: We have to pay attention to indigenous knowledge What it takes to keep Tboli children in school DepEd Order No. 51, issued in 2014, guided schools to ensure that activities, materials, and representations involving Indigenous culture proceed with proper consent, context, and respect. It responded to a familiar problem: cultural expressions were often presented casually or inaccurately, without sufficient regard for the communities to whom they belong. The policy reminded schools that cultural inclusion cannot mean cultural appropriation. DepEd Order No. 32, issued in 2015, adopted the IPEd Curriculum Framework. It made clear that IPEd is not simply inserting Indigenous content into existing lessons. It is about the interface between Indigenous Learning Systems and the national education system. It recognizes elders, culture bearers, Indigenous knowledge holders, community history, ancestral domain, and community life as integral to learning. It also makes clear that there can be no single, uniform “IP curriculum.” Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines are diverse, and indigenizing education has to happen through local dialogue and partnership on how each community’s knowledge, values, aspirations, and competencies interface with the national curriculum. In 2017, DepEd Order No. 34 strengthened this direction through consultative and advisory bodies at the regional, schools division, and school levels in areas implementing IPEd. Composed of Indigenous community members selected by elders and other representatives, these bodies allow communities to shape, in a sustained way, how IPEd is implemented, monitored, improved, and assessed. Of course, access also mattered. Many Indigenous communities long lacked nearby schools. After DO62 was issued in 2011, DepEd intensified initiatives to establish schools for Indigenous Peoples in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. By 2015-2016, this culminated in DepEd’s largest single effort to establish schools for Indigenous communities. In Mindanao alone, 251 new schools opened in SY 2016-2017. Indigenous learners need schools they can reach, and schools where their culture, identity, and community aspirations are celebrated and nurtured. It is encouraging that under Secretary Sonny Angara, DepEd has expressed the intention to advance inclusion and remain open to different ways of doing things. Equally important, EDCOM II has shown openness and courage in asking difficult questions about the education system. As EDCOM II and education leadership revisit IPEd, questions on schools, teachers, classrooms, learning materials, and support are urgent. They should also lead to a deeper one: whether education offered to Indigenous learners is truly culture-based, rights-based, and shaped through sustained partnership with their communities. The discourse has matured because Indigenous communities insisted that education is not neutral when it erases memory, weakens identity, or treats ancestral knowledge as inferior. It matured because policies were not only written for communities, but developed with them. The task now is to build from the foundations already laid: to honor what has been built, examine it honestly, and deepen it. This means measuring progress not only by enrollment numbers or school locations, but by standards that communities helped define and DepEd’s foundational IPEd policies articulate: cultural integrity, flourishing identity, meaningful participation, sustained partnership, and the continuing interface between Indigenous Learning Systems and the national education system. If EDCOM I opened a small window, the work since then shows that the door is much wider. The task now is to keep widening that door by continuing the work already begun: listening, unlearning, and working in genuine partnership with Indigenous communities. Indigenous Peoples Education is not a special project at the margins. It is part of making Philippine education more inclusive, truthful, and able to honor the many ways of being Filipino. – Rappler.com Rozanno “Butch” Rufino served as Adviser to the Secretary on Indigenous Peoples Concerns during the term of Education Secretary Armin Luistro. He was tasked to lead DepEd’s work in establishing the National Indigenous Peoples Education Program and co-developing its foundational policies with Indigenous elders, leaders, and communities, together with civil society organizations.