Boac, Marinduque – Marinduque State College (MSC) Graduate Diploma in Cultural Education (GDCE) Batch 2 would be conducting the completion rites for 32 Teacher-Scholars from Oriental Mindoro, Romblon and Marinduque. Considering Alert Level 3 for the towns of Boac and Buenavista in Marinduque, the GDCE Mimaropa would still carry out the completion rites at the MSC gymnasium following the IATF guidelines, with 30% carrying capacity, fully vaccinated participants with accomplished health declaration forms upon entry to the MSC premises.
The GDCE Mimaropa teacher-scholars have successfully complied with the requirements and deliverables of the CulEd courses for Level 2 from September 4 to December 19. This was the first time to move the summer course to the 1st semester. CulEd 204: Issues in Cultural Education handled by the MSC GDCE Coordinator Dr. Randy Nobleza from September 4 to 26 despite the overlapping of Graduate Courses. During the last day, the GDCE class was able to organize a web symposium about the environment and social role of Cultural Education in the region. The GDCE Batch 2 was able to make use of the modules produced by the Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP) faculty designed for both face to face and remote classes. Like CulEd 205: Media-based Cultural Documentation mentored by Ar. Manolet Garcia from October 2 to 24 where they had a world premiere of the cultural documentaries inspite unstable electricity and connectivity. During the CulEd 206 class last October 30 to November 21 with Prof. Rica Palis, the GDCE teacher-scholars practiced arm’s length local cultural mapping which produced narratives and prepared them for the last CulEd course. The bookend GDCE course, CulEd 207 supervised by Prof. Jonah Jimenez from November 27 to December 19 put everything in place with the development of lesson exemplars.
During the previous decade, the NCCA Philippine Cultural Education Program has come to fruition its vision of Culture-sensitive and empowered Filipinos. But to reach a higher level, the Teacher-Scholars would be needing to advocate for CulEd to their respective students or schools, divisions and regions but to other sectors as well. 2020 witnessed the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This situation ushered in the new normal state affairs, necessary adjustments and retooling were done to adapt to the changing education landscape.
In his message for the completion rites, MSC GDCE coordinator digressed, “PCEP has introduced modules for blended learning as GDCE transitioned to a better normal. MSC GDCE has supported the flagship PCEP project as a conduit institution for making Philippine Culture as the core of teaching, learning and pedagogy. Hopefully for the years to come, PCEP can pivot in offering other certificate/ diploma courses for heritage tourism, MAEd and EdD degrees for heritage studies and credit for elective or mandated courses.”
The GDCE completion rites was jointly organized by the MSC Graduate School, DepEd Mimaropa and National Commission for Culture and the Arts. The partial proceedings of the GDCE courses would also be launched as part of the academic ceremonies. Other updates and announcements for the next batch of teacher-scholars from the region would be posted at mscmarinduque GDCE Mimaropa microsite.