NEWS | Solons eye new evaluative body over ‘faulty’ DepEd modules
By Lanz Ethan L. Galvan
Clamping down on erroneous learning materials procured and distributed by the Department of Education (DepEd) for the distance learning set-up during the pandemic, a house panel is now seeking to set up a body that would be tasked with ensuring their accuracy, quality, and effectiveness.
The House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, chaired by Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo, approved on June 16, the formation of a Technical Working Group (TWG) responsible for drafting a substitute measure that would create a third-party external auditor in charge of reviewing DepEd’s learning materials and modules to address the growing concern for content errors and gaffes reaching public elementary and secondary schools across the country.
Where lawmakers stand
Romulo said that the new bill would be consolidating House Bills (HB) 6247 and 6417, spearheaded by Albay Representative Joey Salceda and Cebu Representative Red Durano respectively, which sought to introduce structural and institutional reforms to the K-12 curriculum.
To elaborate on this, Romulo mentioned that the TWG would be adopting Salceda’s proposal to create a Learning Material Development Center (LMDC), in coordination with the University of the Philippines System, mandated with evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of nationally procured and distributed learning materials that include both textbooks and modules.
The bill details that neither textbooks nor modules procured by DepEd would be distributed and used by students without being certified and reviewed by the LMDC.
Initially, Salceda raised the need for an independent center that would sort and check the quality of learning materials as a result of yearly concerns being pitted against DepEd for its subpar textbooks and modules that he described to be either jumping too high, steeping too low or just plain inaccurate and objectionable.
With this, Salceda stressed that it was imperative that accurate modules and textbooks be created as the country’s standardized teaching and testing system can result in even just a single inaccuracy from a textbook misinforming and miseducating an entire generation since textbooks and modules often took time to be revised and replaced.
DepEd bears responsibility too
Despite the presence of an external auditor, Marikina City Representative Stella Quimbo pointed out that the DepEd bureaucracy should ultimately be accountable for any errors that may be propagated.
Quimbo’s concerns echoed earlier comments by Vice President Leni Robredo back in February, where she suggested that errors in DepEd’s learning materials that were revealed through social media, could have been prevented had a proper screening system been in place.
These were later acknowledged by DepEd’s top brass, who vowed that it would support any means that would provide error-free learning materials for children.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, in particular, welcomed the concerns raised by both Robredo and the house panel by saying that Deped would be working to impose appropriate sanctions on personnel responsible for these errors, citing the example of a 22-year old teacher in Zambales, who was sanctioned and forced to resign after creating a module with “dirty names”.
Is DepEd overstepping its mandate?
Meanwhile, amidst steps to deliver better modules and textbooks to students, Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta questioned the legality of DepEd actually developing and printing self-learning modules during the pandemic.
This is as they supposedly violated Republic Act (RA) 8047 or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act which axed DepEd’s capacity for textbook publication and distribution and delegated this responsibility to the private sector.
Pointing to a 2020 Commission on Audit (COA) report, Marcoleta said that DepEd circumvented Section 10 and 11 of the said law as DepEd went beyond its responsibility of curriculum development by producing and procuring self-learning modules.
Furthermore, Marcoleta insinuated that although the act itself did not specifically equate modules to books, these were deemed the same by COA.
Despite these concerns, DepEd stated that as early as 2017, they had already pushed for the Book Publishing Development Act to be reviewed to allow for the development of its own manuscripts for textbooks as well as the power to print and procure learning materials in the event that private publishers were incapable of meeting the academic demand.
Moving forward
In line with the proposal to create a new evaluative body to screen DepEd’s distance-learning modules, several lawmakers have also begun drumming up support for an additional PHP 20 billion budget increase in funding for the printing self-learning modules aimed at aiding students unable to attend online classes.
Bohol Representative Edgar Chatto and Negros Occidental Representative Jocelyn Sy Limkaichong urged their fellow lawmakers to consider increasing the DepEd’s budget for printing modules as the initial PHP 20 billion allocated for DepEd’s distance learning program under the 2021 General Appropriation Act would not be enough to cover the PHP 40 billion needed to develop, print, and distribute all the needed self-learning modules for the school year 2020–2021.
Chatto detailed that the remaining funds allocated for printing modules are sourced from the Special Education Fund that are generated from one percent of the real property taxes collected by local governments.
With these budgetary concerns already hounding the production of DepEd’s self-learning modules, it becomes clear that creating an external third-party auditor without adequately funding DepEd’s distance learning program would simply result in more students being barred access to quality education during the pandemic.
This lack of planning and coordination among DepEd and the legislature is a testament to what Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Representative France Castro described as the Duterte administration’s failed distance learning programs, where the education system continues to be neglected and the youth’s right to quality, safe, and accessible education remaining the least of the government’s priorities.
As the government’s blended learning program continues to flounder under budgetary constraints and erroneous modules, it is imperative that DepEd work closely with both the legislature and other agencies to address these problems to safeguard each Filipino’s right to education amidst the worsening health crisis in the country.
