‘Apec integration is OK, but Pinoys must keep their soul’

BAGUIO CITY—The K-12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) basic education program has raised the Philippines’ bragging rights as a country prepared for the 2016 economic integration of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

A basic education program that spans 12 years instead of the conventional 10 “is the minimum standard for the rest of the world,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said here last week.

Luistro said it would ensure that Filipinos would get equal treatment abroad, whether in the academe or in the work place.

He cited the plight of an overseas Filipino engineer, who had not been promoted for the last 12 years “because his transcript of records indicated that he underwent a 10-year basic education program.”

Economic integration would also allow Asian students and teachers to relocate here, he said.

Integration, however, has its dangers in that the cultural influence of other Asian countries could enter and weaken the Filipino identity, Luistro said.

Folk wisdom

To address this, public education opened the door to indigenous Filipino folk wisdom and traditional knowledge in the basic elementary and high school curriculums “to protect the Filipino soul,” Luistro told a group of indigenous Filipino teachers at a Nov. 12 forum at Teachers Camp here.

The teachers had gathered for a workshop on the Department of Education’s (DepEd) framework for indigenous peoples education.

The ability of Asians to move freely around Asean countries, like the Philippines, “could be scary if the Philippine school curriculum is not anchored on genuine Filipino culture,” Luistro said.

“We become a fusion of so many cultural influences, but we end up asking ourselves: Who are we? That is why we need traditional knowledge to become part of basic learning,” Luistro said.

Youngest workforce

The latest discussion on K-12’s value to industry was outlined in an Oct. 28 Baguio business forum by lawyer Teodoro Pascua, deputy director general for field operations of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Pascua said the expanded basic education would benefit Filipinos who would represent the youngest workforce by 2050.

This means that skilled Filipinos would dominate or be in high demand in developed countries like Japan, which would have an economy run by an aging workforce in the next 35 years, he said.

But the Filipino workforce should be able to face new cultures without being overwhelmed by these new points of view, Luistro said.

Folktales have been collected and are being turned into classroom stories for grade schools by the DepEd, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and the National Museum, he said.

The directive to use the mother tongue in elementary schools is also an avenue to introduce traditional knowledge as classroom lessons, Luistro added.

There are efforts to tap elders teaching IP craft in the country’s Schools of Living Tradition to teach in the regular schools to help students understand indigenous Filipino ingenuity, he said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

RELATED VIDEOS