SOUTH Cotabato Rep. Shirlyn Banas-Nograles wants elementary and high school students to learn about the culture, practices, arts and sciences, history and traditions of Indigenous Cultural Communities.

She filed House Bill 10475 or the proposed Indigenous Cultural Communities / Indigenous Peoples Education Act.

The lawmaker stressed that IPs comprise the majority of enrollees in public and private primary and secondary schools in ancestral domain areas.

“It is necessary to equip the IPs students with the knowledge and skills that they need, to face various social realities and challenges without forgetting their roots,” Nograles said in her explanatory note.

To preserve and continously inculcate in the minds of young IPs the significance and deeper understanding of their forebears, it is necessary to include subjects or lessons on the history, cultures, traditions, practices, arts, sciences and other important chronicles of the ICCs/IPs in the primary and secondary curricula, she explained.

The measure covers all primary and secondary schools within the ancestral domain or primary and secondary school with ICCs/IPs, students.

The measure mandates the Department of Education, in coordination with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the Department of Information and Communication Technology, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and after thorough consultation with the ICCs/IPs and other experts and practitioners, to develop and constantly update the primary and secondary curricula for ICCs/IPs education.