CAGAYAN de Oro City 1st District Representative Lordan Suan filed a measure that will incorporate the teaching of skills, crafts and traditions of indigenous cultural communities into the basic education system.

House Bill 8427 or the proposed Schools of Living Traditions Act of 2023 aims to take the program to a permanent and sustainable level by institutionalizing it as part of the basic education system.

Suan said that the School of Living Traditions is a program of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts that identifies, preserves, promotes, safeguards and transmits the country’s intangible cultural heritage.

“This flagship program consists of initiating and funding the establishment of community-managed cultural learning centers where cultural masters or practitioners transmit the knowledge, skills and crafts of their communities to the young generation,” Suan said.

“As it is today, SLTs are short-lived and greatly dependent on the support of the local government, the communities themselves and the private sector,” the lawmaker added.

Suan stressed that in establishing an SLT in a cultural community, the government is providing a safe and conducive space for learning, for indigenous children.

He said that the measure will strengthen the identity of indigenous people as a member of a cultural community and ensure the continuity of their culture.

“We are fully aware that indigenous children suffer discrimination from children of the dominant culture. They are forced to accept cultural homogenization that not only eradicates their culture but also creates a negative connotation of their own, ascribing it to be backward and obsolete,” he said.