LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The regional director of the Department of Education – Cordillera asked that a correction of wrong depiction of Igorots found in the textbooks for elementary students be made.
“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,” DepEd CAR director Estela Cariňo during the office’s Convocation Monday.
Cariňo was reacting to the issue on “some modules circulating on social media over the past few days maligning, discriminating, and wrongly depicting Igorots.”
An Igorot herself, Cariňo urgently called on the attention of the regions and schools division offices using such modules to make the necessary and changes immediately.
She added that “Cordillerans may contribute to the wrong concept and incorrect depiction of Igorots if they keep silent.”
“I am an Igorot and proud of it and we need to respond to such issues and not keep mum about it,” Cariňo said.
In a DepEd release, Cariňo “called on all education stakeholders to help in creating awareness on indigenous peoples and to be part of the system that correct these learning materials not by bashing or ignoring it but by calling the attention of the basic education department through its proper channels like the DepEd Error Watch, the official Facebook Pages of DepEd, and even her Office directly.”
“Not all can be seen or monitored by the Learning Resource personnel or the Curriculum and Learning Management Division (CLMD) especially for self-learning modules developed locally in other places,” she said in the release.
She then asked those who see module errors to notify DepEd through bit.ly/DepEdErrorWatch or by email through [email protected], text and messaging through Viber at 0961-6805334; Facebook messaging through DepEd Error Watch account and the DepEd Tayo Cordillera page.
Cariňo also encouraged netizens to use hashtag #depederrorwatch when posting complaints on social media sites. The hashtag will help monitor the complaints.
“We are disheartened that these errors circulate nationwide but we hope our collective efforts will change wrong concepts of indigenous peoples like us especially in areas that Igorots are not the majority,” she added.
Cariňo added that “through the swift action of DepEd CAR officials, the regions and schools division offices that have wrong and biased depictions of Igorots are complying with the urgent requests to rectify their modules.”
