Tabuk City, Kalinga – As a response to a certain module circulating online in the past few days depicting Igorots in a discriminating way, a DepEd Regional official called out regional and schools’ division offices utilizing said materials to make necessary changes immediately.
During a convocation held Monday, February 1, 2021, DepEd CAR Regional Director Estela L. Cariňo said the immediate correction should be made right away, adding that Cordillerans may contribute to the wrong concept and depiction if they will just keep silent regarding it.
“When a wrong concept keeps repeated, this might be accepted as the truth that is why need to respond to it right away and for those responsible to correct it immediately,” Cariňo said.
“I am an Igorot and proud of it and we need to respond to such issues and not keep mum about it,” Cariňo further added.
Modules Questioned by Netizens Online
A module posted on Facebook with an instruction asking pupils to distinguish if the situation portrayed in the sentence is right or wrong was questioned.
“Basahin ang bawat pangungusap. Isulat ang salitang TAMA kung ang pangungusap ay wasto at MALI kung hindi wasto,” it instructed.
The sentence, ‘Hindi ako makikipaglaro sa aking kaklase na Igorot dahil iba ang kanyang pananamit’ caught the attention and angried Igorot netizens on Facebook.
A challenge was then introduced wherein netizens were seen posting photos of them alongside the picture of the discriminatory remark written in the module.
On same online site, another module’s content saying, “Nakita mong tinutukso ng kaklase mo ang isang batang Igorot dahil sa kanyang anyo,” made one netizen questioned DepEd and asked for an explanation regarding the learning module.
“What a disgrace. You are promoting discrimination! We Igorots demand an explanation to this,” the netizen wrote.
In a report by DepEd- Cordillera, the Regional Director appealed to all education stakeholders to be of help in creating awareness on indigenous peoples and to report errors of learning materials.
“Anyone can send errors on modules to DepEd through bit.ly/DepEdErrorWatch or by email through errorwatch@deped.gov.ph, text and messaging through Viber at 0961-6805334; Facebook messaging through DepEd Error Watch account and the DepEd Tayo Cordillera page,” the agency’s report said.
Netizens are also urged by the department to use hashtag #depederrorwatch when posting complaints on social media sites as this, according to them will help monitor the complaints.
The Regional Director said she is disheartened that the errors circulated nationwide but still hopeful that collective efforts of stakeholders will change wrong concepts of indigenous peoples especially in areas that Igorots are not the majority.
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