Learners from indigenous people (IP) communities, youth leaders, teachers and education stakeholders in Negros attended the first-ever youth-led education conference that centered on indigenous learners last March 14. Schools represented were Carabalan National High School, Bago Elementary School, Marikudo Settlement Elementary School, and Bagong Silang Elementary School. Duty-bearers from the local government of Himamaylan and the Department of Education also attended.
IP learners face a unique context that requires a closer look. Is the public education system catering to their unique situation?
According to the monitoring of Multiply-Ed, a youth-led, multi-sectoral and multi-level accountability initiative in education, IP education faces perennial and structural constraints. In an IP community in Marufinas, Puerto Princesa, for instance, it took a long advocacy to help the community secure a high school because of neglect and a one-size-fits-all standard, such as required number of students, to open up a grade levels that IPs are structurally constrained to comply with (G-Watch 2025). Policies such as this need to be surfaced to be corrected.
Meanwhile, in the Marginalized Learners Conference convened by Multiply-Ed in April 2025, the following agenda were put forward by indigenous learners who attended:
- Prevent cases of child/early marriage.
- Ensure there are enough health workers especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDA).
- Enable and strengthen the participation of young people from IP communities.
A lived experience of struggle and triumph
In the conference, the indigenous learners from various IP communities shared their lived experiences in accessing quality education.
Vejiel Velez, Teacher I from Bagong Silang Elementary School, shared her experience of how she overcame struggles as an IP learner and as a member of the IP community. Vejiel identifies herself as a member of the Ata tribe, one of the primary IP communities and original settlers in Negros Occidental.
In an inspirational talk during the conference, Vejiel shared that she faced challenges that initially made her feel like giving up on her aspirations. She and the people of her tribe are often discriminated because of their dark brown skin color and curly hair. She opened up being called “Negra” or “Bukaw (Owl)” because of her round eyes that caused her to feel unconfident with her appearance.
But more than the discrimination, Vejiel underscored that education has been an inaccessible luxury for many in her tribe, rather than a fundamental right. Because everything is lacking, it’s been a huge struggle for many in her tribe to finish school.
Vejiel got to college through a scholarship and in there endured all sorts of challenges for lack of means, even skipping meals at times. Despite thee barriers and the mockery she had to endure, Vejiel strived to excel in her studies out of sheer desire to make a difference for her community. She graduated college with honors and successfully passed the licensure exam for teachers.
Vejiel demonstrated the resilience needed for an indigenous learner to gain education. Vejiel’s story is an inspiration for other indigenous learners.
Solutions from indigenous learners to key issues confronting them
The problems that Vejiel faced is not an isolated case.
In the conference, aside from discrimination and lack of finances, IP learners underscored other problems that they face on a regular basis: malnourishment, insufficient classrooms and learning resources, lack of internet connection, lack of digital learning resources such as laptops, lack of scholarships and trainings and absence of reliable source of water. One group of indigenous learners shared the difficulty of their parents to join school activities due to the need to go to work. The distance of the indigenous communities to schools were also raised, including the insufficiency of basic necessities, like underwears, shoes, allowance for food and transportation, school supplies and medicines.
The IP learners were grouped into three workshop groups to come up with key agenda as proposed solutions to the key issues that they face.
Based on their workshop outputs, the IP learners call for increased IP representation in local government to help in addressing the issues that they face and to help advance their rights and welfare. They also enjoin policy actors to visit the areas where IP communities reside to gain a deeper understanding of the situation on the ground.
Furthermore, the IP learners underscore the need to integrate IP culture in the curriculum and to increase the number of teachers trained in IP culture. They recommend investing more on IP education, providing aspiring IP teachers with scholarships, and addressing gaps in basic services, such as facilities, classrooms, traditional and digital learning resources, electric fans, potable water and basic necessities for the poorest IP learners like clothes, food, allowance, and school supplies. The IP learners also urge government leaders to address the discrimination and bullying against them and to establish new high schools near their community.
“We emphasize on the non-IPs to sympathize, to have a deep understanding of the Indigenous Peoples…”, Ms. Vejiel said. “Because all of us, even us IPs, we have a dream. We have hope for the future… to the stakeholders: please don’t give up on us”. She added as final note.
Role of Indigenous Peoples in Governance
The Indigenous Learners Conference also involved the presentation of the Multiply-Ed Accountability Report as part of the ongoing Multiply-Ed’s Youth-Led Education Reform Conference series. Vice Mayor Justin Gatuslao of Himamaylan local government and Mr. Aurelio Barrios of DepEd provided feedback on the report and also answered questions from the participants, zeroing in on the state of IP education in Himamaylan.
The issue of land came up as a crucial factor hindering the government from addressing the classroom shortage. One participant raised a critical question: “Why in the first place are some public schools constructed in private property?”
Multiply-Ed’s Accountability Report reaffirms how IP education in Negros still have a lot of rooms for improvement. Schools division offices like in Himamaylan have been making efforts to engage their IP learners. Vice Mayor Gatuslao also provided context on the IPs of Himamaylan, noting that Isabela and Binalbagan already have a mandatory representative, which is not yet the case for Himamaylan.
“Now, the challenge on the LGU level is that walang elders ng mga tribes sa government… Ang role ng government is to mediate. You have to mediate in order to set up your IP political structure. [If this is done], finally, there is an IP mandatory representative who can serve as full-fledged SB [school board] member”, Vice Mayor Gatuslao remarked.
The vice mayor, who has been one of the biggest champions of Multiply-Ed, also noted that the office for the Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) in Himamaylan is ready and that there is budget allocation for its staff. However, as of the moment, the Himamaylan IP sector has yet to get together to select their representative.
Ensuring political representation of indigenous peoples in the government can be a factor to effective implementation of IP education. Vice Mayor Gatuslao points out that the presence of an IPMR is not just a matter of compliance, but a critical step towards integrating indigenous cultural knowledge and addressing specific educational needs of IP learners. Furthermore, culturally-sensitive education pushes IP learners' perspectives in directly influencing policy and resource allocation, making the establishment of the IPMR position a vital prerequisite for achieving truly inclusive and equitable educational outcomes not just in Himamaylan, but even in other parts of the Philippines with IP communities.
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