Senator Juan Edgardo Angara on Friday rebuked the Education department over its disappointing performance in 2018.
The report by the Commission on Audit indicated that 27-million textbooks were not delivered for the use of the students, and that. There were error-filled textbooks worth P254 million.
State auditors cited the mistakes in the books for grade 3 pupils, which said Aurora and Zambales were coastal provinces and the Batangas port was an international gateway.
They also cited the use of water in a thermometer and a remark likening the retina to a curtain covering the eye.
“In effect, the errors/deficiencies found in subject learning materials that are provided to the learners and educators in public elementary schools rendered these instructional materials of poor quality,” the report said.
The report also showed there were zero deliveries for some items necessary for the success of the K-to-12 program.
“We are supposed to be showing progress in our educational system, but after seeing these figures, clearly we still have a long way to go,” Angara said.
“Education always gets the biggest share of the government’s funds and rightfully so, because this will ensure the country remains competitive with its people as its backbone,” Angara said.
“So why are we shortchanging our people on this front with such inefficiencies?”
Angara is set to file a resolution next week to look into the chronic delays in the procurement and distribution of critical Basic Education Facilities and the adverse effects of this on basic education outcomes, including the performance of students.
The department, in its performance report cited by the Commission on Audit in its 2018 report on the agency, said it was supposed to build 47,000 new classrooms for the year but only managed to complete 11.
“That’s not even one percent of the target,” Angara said.
The department was also supposed to distribute 38.5 million textbooks and instructional materials for students and teachers, but was able to deliver only 11.8 million.
The commission also discovered that 3.4 million copies of instructional materials worth P113.7 million procured from 2014 to 2017 were left rotting inside the department’s warehouses.
The commission also noted various errors in some of the textbooks for Grade 3 students, the cost of which was pegged at P254.3 million.
A total of 3,183 science and math packages, which consist of equipment essential to learning under the K-to-12 program, was targeted for distribution in 2018, but none was delivered to their intended recipients.
The state auditors said there were undelivered science and mathematics equipment, a lack of proper training to teachers on the use of those equipment, and a lack of storage rooms or laboratories to house those items.
Even equipment for the technical-vocational-livelihood track of the K-to-12 program, amounting to 4,600 units, did not reach the schools.
Items for the P4.6-billion redesigned technical-vocational high school program for school year 2016 to 2017 were also unused or underused.
State auditors also noted the late construction of buildings. With Rio N. Araja
