PLDT, Smart turn over School-In-A-Bag to Kidapawan IP school

To help preserve culture and educate the youth with Indigenous People’s traditions, PLDT and Smart Communications turned over a “School in a Bag” (SIAB) package to the Schools Division of Kidapawan City in Mindanao, to be used by the Obu Monuvu learners in the IP schools in Barangay Ilomavis and Balabag.  

SIAB is a portable digital classroom package which includes a laptop, a Smart LTE Pocket WiFi for teachers, tablets for students, teacher’s guide and digital learning resources for elementary students.  

“We are grateful for this partnership with Smart as this will help students appreciate more their roots and respect their heritage, while learning,” said Dr. Natividad G. Ocon, Superintendent of DepED Kidapawan. 

To make learning more engaging, the technology-based learning package has digital educational materials such as contextualized Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) and 10 #LearnSmart apps that teach literacy and numeracy in the Mother Tongue.  

“One of the goals of this project is to properly document the culture and heritage of the IP communities, and integrate them in the learning materials.  These materials, developed with the help of DepED and the culture bearers, are also available even for non IP learners to promote inclusivity in education,” Smart Community Relations Head Stephanie V. Orlino said. 

As the project involves the Obu Monuvu community, National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) Cotabato Provincial Officer Eric Raz emphasized that the conduct of this project must be culture-sensitive and appropriate.

“We hope that whatever will be included in the learning materials which will be published and used by the students are authentic and respectful of the traditions of the IP community.  We must carefully identify Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) that are not supposed to be shared digitally like rituals,” Raz explained.

To secure community participation and approval of the project, NCIP conducted a consultation with the Manobo Apao Descendants Ancestral Domain of Mt. Apo (MADADMA) Council of Elders to authorize DepEd and Smart to integrate IKSP in the development of learning resources that would include their language, history, arts, traditions and practices.

“We welcome this development for as long as it is compliant to the Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan of MADADMA. We thank PLDT and Smart for their continued support for the betterment of our community,” said Datu Brigido Baroro, Jr., IP Mandatory Representative of Barangay Ilomavis. 

The program to help educate IP youth while preserving their culture is part of a broader PLDT and Smart program to help ensure access to education for all, with their #NoLearnerLeftBehind advocacy.