August 2 2007 Substandard

Since the administration of Joseph Estrada, scandals have hounded the

production of textbooks. At the time, influence-peddling and corruption were
blamed for the publication of textbooks riddled with typographical,
grammatical and even factual errors.
Some textbooks which are already in circulation are both poorly written and haphazardly edited

Example

Asya: Noon at Ngayon with identified total number of more than 400 historical errors.

This is a classic case of profit centeredness without regard to social accountability

NBDB is no textbook police

However, it must be clarified that the National Book Development Board (NBDB) is not
a regulatory agency and is not empowered by law to have regulatory powers over public
school textbooks. This is made clear under Rule VII, Sec. 2 of Republic Act 8047 or the
Book Publishing Industry Act, which states: “The DECS (DepEd) shall ensure the quality
of instructional materials to be adopted in the public schools.”

But even if this is so, in the interest of uplifting the standards of the book publishing
industry, the NBDB has set up mechanisms to address the issue of erroneous textbooks
in the private sector. They are as follows:

1. The New Rule on the Cancellation of Registration of Publishers that Produce Poor
Quality Textbooks

In 2005, the NBDB came up with the New Rule on the Cancellation of Registration of
Publishers that Produce Poor Quality Textbooks. Under this mechanism, a sworn
complaint filed with the NBDB by a teacher, parent, student or concerned citizen that
alleges at least ten (10) erroneous items in the complained book, allows the agency to
initiate evaluation proceedings over a publisher’s book, even without their consent. If the
book is found to be of poor quality, and the publisher is unable to refute the findings, the
NBDB’s Board of Governors can come out with a resolution recommending that the
publisher stop selling the book. If the publisher refuses to correct the book, he is asked
to pay the fine of P100,000.00, and/or the publisher is de-listed from the NBDB’s list of
registrants.

https://booksphilippines.gov.ph/nbdb-is-no-textbook-police/

When DepEd textbooks don’t make the grade (Part 1)

une 23, 2015
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Last April, the Commission on Audit revealed that the department spent P608 million on outdated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. 

https://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/180714

Errors in our textbooks

05:04 AM May 15, 2018

I recently saw an error in a textbook that made me laugh so hard I nearly

fell off our heavily funded but shoddily built footbridge!

I saw this written in a Grade 7 MAPEH (Music, Arts, PE and Health)

textbook which is used by some of the biggest private schools in the
country: BANANA RICE TERECES.

I recently saw an error in a textbook that made me laugh so hard I nearly fell off our
heavily funded but shoddily built footbridge!
I saw this written in a Grade 7 MAPEH (Music, Arts, PE and Health) textbook which
is used by some of the biggest private schools in the country: BANANA RICE
TERECES.
Only three words — two major errors!
I recently discovered after conducting a meticulous process of evaluation that two
more textbooks — developed and published by the Department of Education and in
current use in public schools — are full of errors.
The 363-page Grade 3 “English Learner’s Material” written by 15 “authors” and
reviewed by three “reviewers” has 430 errors, while the Grade 3 “Araling Panlipunan
Learner’s Material” written by Manalo, Capunitan, Galarosa and Sampang — a
veritable joke book that is so funny simply because of its sheer stupidity — contains
1,308 errors!
Here are some of those errors:
Manila is near the equator that’s why its temperature is low and sometimes it rises.
The Philippines is an island of 7,100 islands.
Palay is the main food of Filipinos.

The Pasig River flows through many rivers before it exits into Manila Bay.
Negritoes first inhabited Romblon in 1870; the Panays and the Bicols also lived there
in 1870.

The KIPLING is a thin biscuit made from rice; houses in Lucban are filled with
decorative KIPLING.
The waterfalls of Laguna are vast.
The Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda hid in the jungles of Lubang Island in 1974.
Places that have the biggest population have the most number of people.
Taal Volcano is immersed in Taal Lake.
Mt. Pinatubo is located in Zambales and Pampanga.
Pants made of silk are worn by male fishermen and farmers of Mindoro.
The government, which wants to hasten the production of people, is responsible for
erecting streets and piers for airplanes and ships.
The mayor did many things such as muddy cement and dilapidated roads.
Identify the provincial leaders who were NOT ELECTED by the people.

People from India are called Bombay.

Agta children do not wash their hands before eating.
Mangyan children do not take a bath.
Our ancestors hung jewelry in between their teeth.
From Laguna the highway will pass going to Quezon.
We ride vehicles to get to our schools which use oil to run.
Batangas and Bataan, which are rich in marine resources, are brought to the market.
The product of a province may be textile factories.
A large portion of the egg comes from Batangas because of its poultries.
Do not expect to hear any negative comments or violent
reactions from supposedly concerned stakeholders of the biggest Philippine schools,
both public and private, as they are so very busy counting the embarrassingly
humongous amount of money they are making from the trade and commerce of these
“educational” commodities.

For how can they badmouth something which brings them so much
financial benefits and wealth?

The sad truth remains: error-riddled textbooks are defective products

that harm their end-users and consumers.

The damage they inflict is pernicious, profound and permanent. They

lead to the miseducation of Filipino schoolchildren which in turn affects,
in a most negative way, their chances of enrolling in good or better
schools, or landing good jobs when they graduate.

Their miseducation practically condemns them to a life of unmitigated

ignorance and poverty.

It is their potential and possibility, their very future and fate that the
makers of substandard textbooks are toying and trifling with.

ANTONIO CALIPJO GO, academic supervisor, Marian School of Quezon City

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/113181/errors-in-our-
textbooks#ixzz7BLq5Npzf
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DepEd: Erroneous textbooks not from us

September 20, 2018

The Department of Education (DepEd) has clarified that it did not issue the erroneous books used in
certain public schools in Valenzuela and Bulacan.

In a statement released Wednesday night, DepEd said the books in question during the hearing of the
agency’s 2019 proposed budget by the Senate Sub-Committee on Education are not aligned with the K
to 12 curriculum; hence, they are not DepEd-issued.

The books reportedly contain inadequate information on the Marcos dictatorship.

“However, the Department is cognizant of the importance of looking into similar materials, which may
be using marks of the agency, and is already implementing reviews and reforms to ensure and update
the accuracy compliance to learning competencies of materials used in public schools,” DepEd said.

Citing Republic Act 8047 or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act, DepEd said the Department
is confined to “preparing the minimum learning competencies, and/or prototypes and other
specifications for books and/or manuscripts called for”.

Education chief Leonor Briones said the law also mandates that the writing and printing be done by
private printers.

“Hindi kami (We are not) allowed. And this explains also why in spite of new developments, new
information, new perspectives,  hindi nare-reflect  sa textbooks  kaagad (the textbooks don’t reflect
them right away),” she noted.

DepEd said it is already conducting review workshops of all its learning materials to help identify and
correct the errors.

The agency is also considering ways on how to ensure that textbooks being used in private schools may
also be reviewed by the department prior to use.

“Part of our efforts to make all these corrections is to look at the schools that are still using these kinds
of textbooks, which have lost their relevance. It is a duty on our part to check on the schools who are
still using these books because we have a lot of new materials already,” Briones said.  (PNA)

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1048629

DepEd blames ‘cost cutting’ publishers for book errors june 25 2010

Deped wants to be given back the authority to produce of textbooks dor the country’s public schools

Asst. Secretay Jonathan Malaya asked congress to revisit of amend R.A. 8047 Book Publishing Industry
Development Act – removed from DepEd authority to commission and publish its own books - privatized

So deped rely on bidding process to get quality textbooks

Bidding process is one of the problems

- Trying to get the lowest price – so manuscript submitted are not good; this is a business
enterprise – u have to cut costs – cut costs manuscripts submitted are substandard

Malaya declined to comment on findings o the UP Professors that deped rules on textbook erors were to
lenient. Instructional Materials Council Secretariat (IMCS) more familiar with that topic

Educaiton reformers insist deped, particularly, (IMCS) should be held responsible for the erroneous
textbooks since they are the ones who reviewed them.

Malaya – deped only trying to make the best out of what it gets from publishers
Proposal to give back authority only reached the committee level

https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/philippine-daily-inquirer-1109/20100625/283150014949344