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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.)

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These festivities are part of “Textbook Walk," a project adopted by the Department of Education (DepEd) last year from G-Watch, a nongovernmental organization run by the Ateneo School of Government. The program asks students, families, and communities of elementary schools in far-flung areas to help the early distribution of textbooks by asking them to pick up the books from DepEd district offices instead of waiting for government personnel to deliver them to their schools. The delivery and distribution of textbooks are usually delayed due to budget constraints and operational problems. - GMANews.TV
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