The Department of Education (DepEd) will join this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In an advisory, DepEd said that International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2024 will be observed on Jan. 24 at the Kalantiaw Elementary School in Quezon City.
In DepEd Memorandum No. 004, s. 2024 signed by Undersecretary Michael Poa, the agency noted that the Philippines “upholds a strong humanitarian tradition of providing succor for forcibly displaced individuals in need of protection.”
The activity, DepEd said, aims to “serve as a platform to give the public, specifically the learners, the opportunity to develop an awareness of the value of diversity in a pluralistic society.”
It also aims to provide an avenue for DepEd to “showcase the heroism and contributions of Filipinos, survivors and rescuers of the Holocaust” and to “encourage teachers, learners and the public to promote social justice, respect for human rights and create awareness and expanded view of humanity and history.”
Through the activity, DepEd aims to “support learners in understanding the roots and ramifications of prejudice, racism, and stereotyping in the Philippines or in any society, foster critical thinking and identify danger signals to know when to take constructive action.”
The event also aims to provide an avenue for the International Cooperation Office (ICO) and the DepEd to “establish partnerships with international stakeholders and develop cooperation and collaboration.”
DepEd, in coordination with the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Embassy of Israel in the Philippines, will conduct the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) with the UN-designated theme for 2024 as Recognizing the Extraordinary Courage of Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust.
“The ICO shall serve as the overall coordinator and shall work in close coordination with the OVP and the Embassy of Israel to the Philippines,” DepEd said.
Moreover, DepEd noted that the commemoration of the IHRD activity will be a regional hybrid: the in-person ceremony will be held in the identified school in Quezon City and the three other venues will be held simultaneously in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao on Jan. 26, 2024.
Teachers and student participants from the different schools divisions all over the country, in compliance with the DepEd Policy on the no disruption-of-classes under DepEd Order No. 9, s. 2005, were also encouraged to simultaneously participate in the conduct of a film screening on the holocaust and candle-lighting activities within their respective school premises.