IN AN aim to better implement the Mother Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program, the Department of Education (DepEd)-Central Luzon has developed new learning materials that use the languages of indigenous people (IP).
Arnold Montemayor, DepEd-Central Luzon focal person for IPED, said the agency has already completed the validation and quality assurance of the working orthographies and alphabet primers for IP languages.
The learning resources are aimed at helping bridge the emerging gap in the implementation of the MTB-MLE among IP learners for the various indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) in Central Luzon.
"Developing orthographies and alphabet primers take continuous engagement, cultural sensitivity, and protocols with ICCs. Region-III ICCs have a deep rooted oral literacy but have no developed print literacy," Montemayor said.
All the eleven identified IP languages with ancestral lands in Central Luzon have no written orthographies.
For the development of the learning materials, DepEd-Central Luzon, in consultation with the ICCs, prioritized the nine IP languages, which include Ayta Magbukun, Ayta Ambala, Ayta Mag-indi, Ayta Mag-antsi, Ayta Abellen, Sambal Botolan, Agta Casiguran, Dumagét Bulos, and Dumagét Kabulloan.
Montemayor said each ICCs' oral literacy is distinct from other IP ethnicities.
"Literacy among the indigenous peoples is "reading" about relationship in the context of their ancestral domain. Given the situation of many ICCs, many of the IP elders have no print literacy knowledge," he stressed.
Montemayor added that the development of orthographies and alphabet primers, which included a write shop, validation and field testing took almost four years.
"These learning resources, after being subjected to the cultural standards of the concerned ICCs, were reviewed during the Regional Quality Assurance of Indigenous Peoples Languages for Indigenous Peoples Education on September 15 to 21, 2019 at NEAP Region-III, Pulungbulu, Angeles City," he said.
The successful development of learning materials is described to a fitting and timely manner to celebrate the National Indigenous Peoples Month this October in pursuant to Presidential Proclamation No. 1906, s.2009 entitled "Declaring the Month of October of Every Year as National Indigenous Peoples Month."