New textbooks welcomed with parade in Mindanao village
School children elsewhere take their textbooks for granted. Not in remote communities like Barangay Salansang in Sultan Kudarat. Here they are a reason to celebrate and stage a rarely recorded unorthodox native dance (see video). Public elementary schools here have just received new textbooks from the Department of Education, finally enabling each student to have textbooks of their own. Two students previously had to share each book, which children in many schools in the Philippines still do. Parents and teachers welcomed the arrival of the new books with a colorful parade featuring music and dancing that fused elements from their Tiruray and Manobo heritage with modern influences. The program included an interpretative ethnic dance number from parents of elementary school students that portrayed the importance of textbooks to the future of the community. (Check out the intriguing dancer-character in black that tries to "steal" one of the books.)