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MANILA, Philippines – Is Harry Potter a novel from the United States? Is the Epic of Gilgamesh from Egypt?
The answer to both questions is “no,” but a textbook that the education department has allowed public schools to purchase for Grade 10 students, Filipino: Panitikang Pandaigdig, says so.
It is publishers of similar books that Valenzuela 1st District Representative Sherwin Gatchalian seeks to punish with the filing of House Resolution 2178.
The resolution calls for a congressional investigation into the process through which the Department of Education and public schools acquire textbooks from private publishing companies.
Eliminating “sick books” produced by publishers who don’t do diligent checks of content will “avert further waste of public funds and ensure the best quality of education in our schools,” said Gatchalian, who is a member of the committee on basic education and culture.
In a statement Friday, June 19, the Gatchalian said strictly keeping the textbooks error-free – “if only the concerned officials and employees are performing their jobs excellently” – will also end the “vicious cycle of ignorance” created by these errors and passed on through generations.
“In the interest of quality education and for the welfare of students, especially with the implementation of the K-12 program in schools, there is an urgent need to revisit and examine the procurement process and evaluation of these textbooks in order to improve the quality of education that we inculcate in our learners,” the congressman said.
At the start of each school year, the media reports on educators who expose textbooks that contain errors in grammar, concepts, vocabulary, and idioms, he noted.
But since changes in the procurement and evaluation of books “is not an easy process and cannot be done overnight,” Gatchalian wants the initial, immediate step of meting out sanctions “for future publications that do not observe the evaluation that is necessary in the procurement of quality books.”
“If the DepEd is really committed to making the student population globally competitive, textbooks for students and teachers should have no room for errors since these will be detrimental to the intellectual growth of students,” the Valenzuela congressman said. – Rappler.com
Book image from Shutterstock
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