PCEP is the cultural education arm of the NCCA. It envisions a A NATION OF CULTURALLY LITERATE AND EMPOWERED FILIPINOS by ensuring that culture is the core and foundation of education, governance, and sustainable development.

It was designed to make cultural education accessible to all sectors of Philippine society, particularly the youth, teachers, artists and cultural workers, officials and employees of the government, members of the media, and civil society.

It seeks to develop among Filipinos a greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of our culture and arts towards the evolution of a consciousness that will improve the quality of our lives.

HISTORY OF PCEP

With the promulgation on 11 August 2001 of Republic Act 9155, also known as “An Act Instituting a Framework of Governance for Basic Education, Establishing Authority and Accountability, Renaming the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) as a Department of Education (DepEd) and for other Purposes,” cultural education was effectively reaffirmed as an integral part of basic education but administrative supervision of cultural agencies formerly attached to DECS was transferred to the NCCA.

Cognizant of the need to accelerate the process of integrating culture in the basic education curriculum and mainstreaming it in national development plans, the NCCA Board of Commissioners, in its September 2001 meeting, resolved that a Philippine Cultural Education Plan (PCEP) be formulated and operationalized. In 2002, after a series of year-long consultative meetings, PCEP was launched as a comprehensive Commission flagship program that outlined goals, policies, programs, and projects on cultural education through the formal, non-formal, and informal systems.

A comprehensive Five-Year Plan of Action (2003-2007), containing various proposed programs, projects, and policies, was launched to flesh out the necessary steps toward the attainment of PCEP goals. The NCCA Board constituted a Task Force in October 2002.  From 2003 – 2007 PCEP was put into operation with the Sub-Commission on Cultural Dissemination as oversight and implementing body. It carried out several projects including national consultative meetings, conferences, workshops, training-writeshops, arts camps and festivals on culture-based teaching and good governance. Among the projects initiated was the Kaguruang Makabayan National Consultative Workshop Series on Culture-Based Teaching of the MAKABAYAN Curriculum. To ensure that the Plan is properly reviewed, updated, consolidated, and extended, the NCCA Board of Commissioners created the Philippine Cultural Education Program (PCEP) Task Force in March 2007.

With the enactment of the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009 on March 26, 2010, PCEP established a major gain by its designation as the body, together with the Department of Education, tasked to “formulate the cultural heritage education programs both for local and overseas Filipinos to be incorporated into the formal, alternative and informal education, with emphasis on the protection, conservation and preservation of cultural heritage property.” (Article X, RA 10066).

OBJECTIVES:

1. To establish a Philippine Cultural Index from the existing body of knowledge on Philippine culture and arts’
2. To define the minimum learning competencies and standards for Philippine culture and arts;
3. To ensure utilization of the Philippine Cultural Index and the minimum learning competencies and standards;
4. To develop basic instructional materials, such as textbooks, teaching-learning manual, and multimedia materials for cultural education;
5. To create, inventory, and package culture and arts kits and self-contained modules for cultural education;
6. To provide a comprehensive trainor’s training paradigm on culture and the arts;
7. To establish a continuing education program for artists and cultural workers;
8. To institutionalize culture and arts programs in formal, non-formal, and informal education;
9. To cause the enactment of national legislation or executive actions for the structure of cultural education in all sectors;
10. To establish a mechanism for planning and implementation of PCEP plan at the local and national levels; and
11. To establish an NCCA-based structure to ensure effective implementation of PCEP.

PCEP Task Force

Virgilio S. Almario
Chairman, NCCA

Atty. Alberto T. Muyot
Undersecretary, Legal and Legislative Affairs, DepEd

Commissioner Orlando B. Magno, Ph.D.
SCD- NCCED Head

Commissioner Teddy O. Co
SCA Head

Commissioner Harold Rentoria, OSA
SCH Head

Commissioner Alphonsus D. Tesoro
SCCTA Head

Joseph “Sonny” Cristobal
Director, PCEP

Ms. Marichu G. Tellano
OIC Executive Director, NCCA

Ms. Adelina M. Suemith
Chief, Program Monitoring and Evaluation Division

Mr. Bernan Joseph Corpuz
Head, P/PFPD