When indigenous children find their voice
Before Yuto Onsad became a teacher, he was a child afraid to speak. In a regular school, unfamiliar language, discrimination, and fear of ridicule silenced him. His father transferred him to Pamulaan Elementary School, where learning began to make sense through his Matigsalug identity. Years later, he returned to teach children from his own community. The child who once struggled to be heard was helping others find their voice.
He also became one of the first Matigsalug youth to join Pamulaan’s Ilawan Volunteer Service, which encourages indigenous youth to serve their communities. Head teacher Ina Malayon shared his story at the KaAmbitan 2026 summit. It leaves us with a question: how many children’s possibilities remain hidden because our schools have yet to understand them?
Indigenous Peoples Education, or IPEd, begins with that responsibility to understand. A familiar word can draw a hesitant child into a lesson. An elder’s story can connect reading with lived experience. When teachers listen carefully, they may discover that silence carries fear or exclusion, and that knowledge is already present in a language the classroom has not learned to welcome.
At Pamulaan, a lesson on gratitude may begin with Sahakeen, the Matigsalug harvest celebration. Children learn about sharing and giving thanks to Manama through their community’s traditions. Parents, elders, and knowledge bearers connect learning with food, health, history, and care for the ancestral domain. Recognizing their teaching requires appropriate compensation, respect for cultural protocols, and community consent over what knowledge may be shared.
These connections deepen learning while raising a larger question: what do we consider knowledge worth teaching? Indigenous knowledge systems, values, practices, and spirituality hold wisdom about forests, water, reciprocity, and responsibility to future generations. In a world confronting ecological damage, such wisdom can enrich our search for a more sustainable way of living. Children deserve an education that enables them to explore science and technology while carrying their heritage with confidence.
Yet belonging alone cannot overcome hunger or shorten the long walk to school. The current Philippine learning poverty crisis demands urgent action, where poverty, isolation, and discrimination compound learning difficulties. Indigenous children need strong foundations in reading and numeracy, qualified teachers, adequate nutrition, and safer, accessible schools. Respect for culture and high expectations for learning must grow together.
The Second Congressional Commission on Education’s reform agenda points toward nutrition, early childhood development, foundational learning, teacher support, and accountability. The measure of reform will be what changes in a child’s daily life. Can she understand the lesson? Can her family afford to keep her in school? Does she feel safe enough to ask a question? Does education expand her choices while strengthening her sense of worth?
Answers require indigenous communities to help shape decisions. DepEd, CHEd, Tesda, and DSWD, within their mandates, must support community participation in planning, school governance, and accountability. Parents, elders, knowledge bearers, and youth must have a voice in defining priorities.
Reform must also recognize those who have sustained education where access remains difficult. Indigenous communities, missionary groups, and NGOs have established schools, nurtured teachers, and accompanied learners in geographically isolated areas, including places government services had yet to reach. These schools need fair recognition, appropriate accreditation, and reliable financial support. Their experience should guide reform.
Universities can support teacher mentoring and culturally grounded materials. CHEd and Tesda can widen pathways for indigenous educators and relevant skills development. DSWD can help families overcome barriers to attendance. Communities can guide cultural learning and help monitor progress. Shared responsibility must become visible in funded commitments, dialogue, and classroom support.
At KaAmbitan 2026, indigenous youth voiced concerns, proposed improvements, and crafted an IPEd Agenda for education stakeholders. Listening now requires action. Their proposals deserve decisions, resources, and follow-through that communities can assess.
Yuto returned to the classroom carrying something his younger self had needed: the assurance that an Indigenous child belongs. Every child deserves that assurance, and the freedom to pursue a future of their choosing. When we welcome their voices, we open education to wisdom our future needs. Let us build schools worthy of their trust, where a child can grow in knowledge, remain rooted in identity, and one day make room for another voice waiting to be heard.
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Ben Abadiano is a social development leader and president of the Assisi Development Foundation, and cofounder of the Pamulaan Center, which serves as the first tertiary-level college program dedicated specifically to indigenous youth in the Philippines.
