THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas assisted the Samar provincial government in formulating the Samar Provincial Cultural Education Curriculum.

SPCEC is part of the provincial government’s “Cultural Heritage Values Interpretation Towards Education and Utilization for Community Development: A Cultural Mapping Continuing Project Phase 2” program.

The university’s Graduate School Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropic said the curriculum was based on the output of the Samar Province Cultural Mapping.

“The curriculum development guideline was formally submitted in January 2021, premised on the home, community, and the school as critical agents of empowerment,” it said.

“This was done to develop the cultural competencies of students in Basic Education and Adult Education, linked the cultural competencies to the Most Essential Learning Competencies of the Department of Education and provided guides for the development of a culture-based learning modules,” the group added.

The venture covered the utilization of the cultural mapping data for the crafting of curriculum for Grades 1 to 12 and Adult Education as bases for development of modules and other relevant instruction materials.

Phase 3, to begin in May 2021, will tackle module development and classroom training.

The UST team is headed by Associate Prof. Eric Zerrudo and the Curriculum Development Team composed of UST-Institute of Religion faculty members.

The UST-IR was represented by Prof. Joan Christi Bagaipo. Other professors from various Samar-based universities also helped in the project.