Rethinking Schooling for the 21st Century

chauvinism, it may be seen as very much in keeping with UNESCO’s notion of
‘global citizenship’. But the Philippines has also been held up as an object lesson
of the adverse social and political consequences of failure to cultivate a coherent
and unifying sense of national identity (Maca and Morris, 2012). Surveys suggest
a relatively low level of popular commitment to the national community, and a
widespread desire to adopt an alternative nationality (especially American or
Japanese) should the opportunity present itself (Maca and Morris, 2015). For
elites, migration has served as a sort of political safety valve, releasing pressures
that might otherwise challenge entrenched privilege in one of the region’s most
unequal societies. Here, therefore, transnationalism constitutes not so much a
broadening out of identity consciousness in ways likely to promote sustainable
peace, but a strategy for staving off reform of a fundamentally unsustainable
socio-economic dispensation.
Box 4.2 State directives and national and other identities in the Philippines
State directives acknowledging minority identities in the Philippines
DepEd Memorandum No. 14, s.2013 (or the DepEd Peace Movement in Mindanao) supports
tolerance among ethnic and religious groups, particularly Catholics and Muslims,
while R.A. 9054 (or An Act to Strengthen and Expand the Organic Act for the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 6734 Entitled
‘An Act Providing for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao’, as Amended) calls for
a complete and integrated system of education in Mindanao. The indigenous peoples of
the Philippines, who comprise up to a fifth of the national population, are among the most
marginalised in the country, suffering disproportionately from human rights violations
and armed conflict. There are between 110 and 185 languages in the Philippines. Republic
Act No. 8371 (or the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997) mandates the education of
indigenous peoples to be carried out in their own language and in a manner appropriate
to their learning. However, what support exists for the implementation of these various
directives is unclear. While the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process was
set up to integrate peace education teaching exemplars into curricula subjects, it has become
inactive.
There also appears to be an ambivalence in official documents regarding the articulation
of Filipino and Muslim identities. DepEd Order No. 51, s.2004 (or Standard Curriculum for
Elementary Public Schools and Private Madaris) aims to promote both the Filipino identity
and the Islamic cultural heritage in elementary public schools and privately-run Muslim
schools called Madaris; however, precisely how Muslim identities are to be reconciled with
notions of Filipino identity powerfully influenced by Catholic culture and beliefs is not
explained. Recently, however, there have been developments signalling more ‘affirmative
actions’ for the Philippine indigenous peoples, such as the establishment of the Indigenous
Peoples Education Office (IPsEO) (DepEd Order 103 series of 2011), adoption of a National
Indigenous Peoples Education Policy Framework (DepED Order 62 series of 2011)
and more recently the adoption of Indigenous Peoples Education Curriculum Framework
(DepEd order 32 series of 2015).
Integration of gender concepts and sexuality education into curricula
The weakness of state-directed efforts at political socialisation through education in the
Philippines has been attributed in part to the influence of other powerful social actors,
amongst which the Catholic Church has been especially prominent (Maca and Morris,
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Chapter 4: Southeast Asia