Legislators on Monday assailed the Department of Education (DepEd) after they found another “dirty word” in a module used in the distance learning system.
In a hearing held by the House of Representatives' Committee on Public Accounts, Antonio Calipjo-Go, who earlier complained to the Commission on Audit (COA) on the learning materials used by the department, told the committee headed by Rep. Jose Singson Jr. that four parents from Pampanga called his attention to a word included in a learning module.
Calipjo-Go shared with the committee the copy of the module, which tackles Filipino mythical creatures such as aswang, tiyanak, kapre, and maligno, among others.
In the module, it defines aswang as: “Siya rin ay isang diyos pero ang Aswang ay pinaniniwalaan na ito’y tao na kumakain ng kapwa tao, kung minsan ang mga ito ay pinapaniwalaan na may mga pakpak at sila raw ay gising kung gabi para maghanap ng makakant*t or maaswang.”
ACT-CIS party-list group Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo said of that last phrase in Filipino—which means to look for sex—“Makak*ntot? Seriously?”
The anti-crime group representative also said errors in DepEd learning modules are “clearly not just isolated incidents.”
In a statement, Tulfo said: “The sheer volume of mistakes and lapses discovered and exposed despite snail-paced internet is enough proof of the low quality of teacher education, of in-service training, quality assurance, and educational management in many of our public schools, schools divisions, and schools regions.”
Making matters worse, Tulfo said, “is the lack of admission by the Department of Education top hierarchy, that the flaws are not major mistakes. They are in denial and public apologies are either slow or sugar-coated.”
Due to this situation, Tulfo added: “We cannot keep students at home for too long. The generations that grew up watching ‘Batibot’ and ‘Sesame Street’ know how inadequate the educational television shows are nowadays.”
Tulfo recalled this was not the first time that DepEd was criticized over “dirty words” contained in its learning materials.
In September 2020, the DepEd disowned a self-learning module attributed to the agency which used “dirty” names in its exercises.
In a photo shared by a netizen, the choices in one question mentioned “Pining Garcia,” “Abdul Salsalani,” “Malou Wang,” and “Tina Moran” – all euphemisms for sexual acts or private parts.