Indigenous Peoples/Indigenous Cultural Community (IP/ICC) Refers to "a group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, processed and utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, tradition and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social, and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and culture, became historically differentiated from majority of Filipinos. IP/ICC shall likewise include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads or non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains." (Section 3(h), RA 8371).
Mother Tongue – Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) is the government’s banner program for education as a salient part of the implementation of the K to 12 Basic Education Program. Its significance is underscored by the passing of Republic Act 10523, otherwise known as the “Enhanced Basic Educatiion Act of 2013.” MTBMLE is education, formal or non - formal, in which the learner’s mother tongue and additional languages are used in the classroom. Learners begin their education in the language they understand best - their mother tongue - and develop a strong foundation in their mother language before adding additional languages. Research stresses the fact that children with a solid foundation in their mother tongue develop stronger literacy abilities in the school language. Their knowledge and skills transfer across languages. This bridge enables the learners to use both or all their languages for success in school and for lifelong learning. In terms of cognitive development, the school activities will engage learners to move well beyond th basic wh-questions to cover all higher order thinking skills in L1 which they can transfer to the other languages once enough Filipino or English has been acquired to use these skills in thinking and articulating thoughts. With the nd goal of making Filipino children lifelong learners in their Li (MT), L2 (Filipino, the national language), and L3 (English, the global language) the learners are more thatn prepared to develop the competencies in the different learning areas. This will serve as their passport to enter and achieve well in the mainstream educational system and in the end, contribute productively to their community and to the larger society as well as Multilingual, Multiliterate, and Multi-Cultural Citizens of the country. For the effective implementation of the MTB-MLE, it is suggested that the two-track method be used, that is the primer track to focus on accuracy and the story track to focus on meaning. Learning via the two-track method to gain proficiency in leteracy as well as comprehend academic content and gain curriculum mastery, creative and critical thinking skills for decisive decision-making.
The DepEd Order No. 74 issued in 2009 institutionalized Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB MLE) nationwide and mandated the use of the learners' mother tongue (MT) in improving learning outcomes from Kindergarten to Grade Three (DepEd, 2012).