Kalinga weaving as SHS track awaits DepEd okay

By Jesse Maguiya 

TABUK CITY, Kalinga -- The inclusion of the traditional Kalinga weaving as a special track for Senior High School in Lubuagan town here will have to wait for another year as the program implementation is still being finalized, a Dept. of Education official said.

Ginadine Balagso, officer-in-charge Assistant Schools Division Superintendent of Kalinga, said they are waiting for the formal approval of the curriculum submitted to the central office.

She, however, said they are positive the program will be implemented as the approval is a mere formality.

"It was submitted as a special track needing that the central office as the approving authority. We are positive that it will be approved,” she said.

In February, Education Secretary Leonor Briones witnessed the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the local government of Lubuagan and the DepEd-Kalinga for the implementation of the program.

Briones lauded the conceptualization of the program, which will boost not just the knowledge of the students, but also the promotion of traditional and customary practices.

“It was launched as one special track in Lubuagan, as a stand-alone track,” Balagso told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

Lubuagan’s “laga” (weaving) is among the practices in Kalinga province which is considered as a living tradition. The “laga” practice has also become the town’s festival which they call “laga festival”.

She said while the approval is being awaited, they are working out things with the local government for the honorarium of the teacher who will handle the track.

She said the local government is willing to help in funding the program, using its Special Education fund.

“The LGU is very much willing to give temporarily the honorarium to the teacher,” she said.

Balagso said Lubuagan’s weaving industry remains active and alive, and the students are taught how to weave as early as their elementary years as part of the practice to preserve the culture.

“It is only in Lubuagan where the weaving industry is maintained until now,” she said.

Even before the DepEd's Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd), teaching the children how to weave the traditional way has already been part of the educational system in Lubuagan under home economics.

Balagso said when the K-12 curriculum was implemented, it was adapted as a lesson for Senior High until a teacher at the Kalinga State University handling it broached the idea of making it a track.

Weaving as a track will be implemented only in Lubuagan, specifically at Kalinga Academy, the first and only private educational institution in Lubuagan and in Kalinga since the early years.

“The community does not want a new high school there because they wanted to maintain the Kalinga Academy in Lubuagan. Lubuagan was the center of education, of civilization, even my father finished his education there,” Balagso said. -- PNA