By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Finally, after years of ignoring, downplaying or outrightly denying criticisms that its textbooks are shot through with errors, the Department of Education (DepEd) is undertaking a wholesale review of textbooks and learning materials issued since 2012 “for sufficiency, appropriateness and accuracy of content and suitability of presentation.” All in all, 334 textbooks and learning materials for Kindergarten up to Grade 10 have been distributed to the 17 regional offices for review first at the division level and then the regional level with the output to be submitted to the DepEd central office for validation and consolidation.
Had DepEd just listened early on to Antonio Go who has been waging a lonely war with the agency over these defective textbooks from the opinion page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and other for a for more than two decades, this problem would have been nipped in the bud and a fool-proof system for textbook procurement or production already set in place long time ago. School children would not have been exposed to misleading information and of course, the DepEd would have been spared from the shame of admitting it has been procuring and distributing learning materials for years sans due diligence, common sense and responsibility.
To avoid a similar situation in the future, the DepEd should learn a lesson from the textbook fiasco and confront at the earliest possible time emerging issues which could turn into costly debacles if neglected or ignored. Let’s take the non-reader phenomena in the intermediate and high school which is getting more alarming by the school year. The issue was brought into the open as early as five years ago with the news item “Valenzuela gov’t allots P300M to save slow and non-readers among students” in the February 9, 2014 issue of this paper which stated that a reading test conducted by the DepEd among Grade 6 students of Valenzuela City showed that roughly one and eight of every 10 were non-readers and frustration level readers, respectively. It was exposed again on September 1, 2018 through GMA7’s documentary titled “Pag-asa sa Pagbasa” about the presence of around 80 Grade 7 non-readers and frustration level readers at the Sauyo National High School in Novaliches, Quezon City.
Already four DepEd regional offices openly acknowledge that the phenomenon affects their areas with the following posts in their websites: NRC DepEd memorandum dated September 6, 2018 requiring the submission of data in English reading performance of elementary and secondary learners which template for high school students has a column for non-readers; DepEd Region IV-A Regional Memorandum 18-312 dated June 5, 2018 enjoining support for their reading intervention program cited reports that “there are still non-readers in grades 7 and 8 and readers with poor comprehension in higher grades;” DepEd Region XI Regional Memorandum No. 113, s. 2108, titled “Brigada for Every Child a Reader” which is “in response to feedback of perpetuating existence of non-readers in both Elementary and Secondary Levels;” and DepEd Region XII (HRDD No. 20, s. 2018) titled “Regional Training on Grades 4-8 reading teachers on Care for Non-readers (CNR) Program.”
True to form, even with this preponderance of evidence that the non-reader phenomenon is already widespread, the DepEd leadership pretends it does not exist just like it did the textbook problem. No pronouncement on the issue whatsoever even after the GMA report. Perhaps the agency thinks that if it sticks its head in the sand, the problem will go away.
The agency did not even think the failure of the “Every Child a Ready by Grade 1 in 2016” agenda of the Aquino Administration worth remarking on. No explanation whatsoever why the grand plan collapsed on its face. What it’s doing is quietly resetting the target grade for children to know how to read. DepEd Order No. 18, s. 2017, aligned the target to that of the K to12 curriculum which is Grade 3 but under DepEd Order No. 14, s. 2018, the objective is worded as follows: “make every Filipino child a reader and writer at his/her grade level.” What grades are this the order did not say but heaven forbid that the DepEd is trying to inject the idea that it is acceptable for Filipino children to learn how to read at any grade!
At any rate, let us hope and pray that the DepEd will not wait 24 years – the length of time it stuffed its ears to Go’s incessant broadsides on its error-riddled textbooks – before it addresses the reality that a growing number of Filipino children could not read their elementary school diplomas. This fact alone validates Go’s fulmination that “the people running the department are negligent, disorganized, inept, inefficient, incompetent and irresponsible” because no educator and education official worth his salt would permit such an absurdity.
