What is going on in the Department of Education under Secretary Armin Luistro?
Last April, the Commission on Audit revealed that the department spent P608 million on outdated textbooks. The COA said that over 16 million textbooks meant for school year 2011-2012 were delivered to the department after the primary and secondary school system in the country shifted to the K-12 program mandated by Republic Act No. 10533, or the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013. According to state auditors, the additional two years of high school education required by the K-12 program rendered the 16 million textbooks obsolete.
It was a case of manifest lack of foresight on the part of the department, the COA report disclosed, because the department was instrumental in getting Congress to approve the K-12 program. In other words, the department failed to coordinate its operations with the law it was supposed to be familiar with.
In an attempt at damage control, the department claimed that the textbooks were not completely obsolete because they may still be used for reference materials. The department excuse is hogwash. At the end of the day, public money will still have to be spent on the necessary textbooks, suitable this time for the K-12 program, to replace the obsolete ones purchased by the department.
All told, taxpayers’ money, almost a billion pesos, was wasted by the department. This money could have been used for additional classrooms, or to augment the salaries of public school teachers. Somebody at the department has to answer for this unpardonable wastage. Public interest advocates ought to take a look at this anomaly.
Perhaps, the parties questioning the validity of the K-12 program in the Supreme Court are correct – that the department is not really prepared for the K-12 program, despite its public protestations to the contrary.
* * * * * *
The 1987 Constitution mandates that education shall be given the largest share of the national budget every year. To state the obvious, that mandate from the fundamental law of the land underscores the importance of education in the country. Despite the constitutional mandate, the department is squandering public money on improvident expenditures which could have been avoided if the leaders of this vital government agency exercised more foresight and diligence in their work.
If it were not for the state audit conducted on the department, this worthless textbook anomaly would have gone unnoticed by a general public inoculated with daily news about corruption in the government – including the continuing attempts on the part of Malacañang to get Congress to railroad the approval of the controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law.
* * * * * *
The Filipino taxpayers are fortunate that a civic-minded citizen actually spends time and exerts effort to monitor the textbook publications of the department. Antonio Calipjo Go, a crusader against substandard school textbooks published by the department for the past 20 years, is correct – the lack of quality control in the textbooks published by the department is now a very serious national problem.
Just recently, Go revealed to the news media that a 508-page textbook designed by the department for the use of Grade 10 students in the country has 1,300 glaring errors. Go said he made his discovery after going through a copy of the textbook “Diversity: Celebrating Multiculturism Through World Literature.” He pointed out that the title of the textbook itself is erroneous because the word “multiculturism” does not exist in the English language. Go also disclosed that even the entries in the copyright page of the textbook were carelessly written.
As for the entirety of the textbook, Go cited substantial errors consisting not only of incorrect spelling and grammar, but also of sloppy sentence structuring and poor syntax. In many instances, the errors are so patent that one may even think that they were deliberately made for comic relief.
According to Go, the anomaly is aggravated by the fact that the error-filled textbook was supposedly prepared and reviewed by a “development team” of the department composed of two consultants, 10 authors, 10 reviewers, one language editor, and four editorial assistants. In this connection, Assistant Education Secretary Jesus Mateo disclosed that the department engaged the services of “individual and institutional experts to help review” its textbooks, including the University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Mathematics.
For the past 20 years, Go has been crusading against substandard textbooks published by the department. Lamenting that the department does not really care about the lack of quality control in the textbooks it publishes, Go almost gave up on his quest in 2010. The newly-inaugurated President Benigno Aquino III persuaded Go to continue with his quest.
Why the department continues to publish erroneous textbooks over the past 20 years is a big mystery. Why the Department keeps on wasting public funds on sloppy publications invites graft charges.
* * * * * *
Education officials said that the textbook Go reviewed was a mere “first draft” or a work in progress, and that this is confirmed by the cover of the book which, as pointed out by Go himself, has an erroneous title. They insisted that this “first draft” was distributed to public school teachers for their comments and suggestions, and that the school teachers were told that the textbook was just “a draft.”
It was learned that the department on-line portal announced the corrected title of the textbook only after Go made his revelation.
When the department allows error-filled textbooks to circulate in the country, its officials not only invite anti-graft charges; they are committing a great disservice to the future generations (yes, generations) of Filipino school children.
Continued on Saturday