MANILA — 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, hindinare-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. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
