THE Department of Education on Tuesday declared that it does not tolerate discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation.

“Guided by international and national frameworks on equality, we have released various issuances and conducted series of trainings to uphold a zero-tolerance policy against discrimination,” the department said.

It issued the statement to shed light on the printing of self-learning modules that wrongly depicted Igorots.

“Our internal investigation showed that this draft document was still undergoing quality assurance procedures but was mistakenly reproduced in good faith by some school personnel,” the department said.

“We would like to emphasize though that this erroneous document was not distributed to learners since the field offices concerned, upon learning about the incident, immediately withdrew the said document from circulation,” it added.

The department reiterated that discrimination “has no place in our society,” noting that it is committed to do its part to eliminate discriminatory practices in schools and offices.

“Mechanisms are in place in the department to police such acts. For modules and other learning materials, the public may send their complaint to DepEd Error Watch,” it added.

“Nonetheless, we believe that this issue is not DepEd’s duty to advocate alone. We will need the help and support of our other government,” it said.