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THE Department of Education has found at least four
factual errors in textbooks scheduled for delivery to public schools
nationwide.
Stung by the investigation by the
Senate into the controversial textbook procurement program,
Education Secretary Jesli Lapus ordered a two-day extensive review
of the textbooks to determine the errors.
“In order to verify the
allegations of content errors, our Instructional Materials Council
Secretariat [IMCS] have involved 35 master teachers and head
teachers, all of whom are experts and practitioners in social
studies,” Lapus said.
He said the review team found an
average of four factual errors each book. Minor typographical and
spelling errors were also present, as well as some minor production
errors, which included books with untrimmed and wrinkled pages, and
smudges.
Major production errors including
books with inverted or missing pages and poor binding were rejected
outright by the recipient DepEd division offices.
As of January 25, the DepEd IMCS
conducted at least 23 inspections at the warehouses of publishing
companies to determine the quality of textbooks that will be
distributed to different schools nationwide. At least 18,071 random
samples of the textbooks were inspected to determine major
production errors.
During the Senate hearing,
Antonio Go, academic supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City,
said a new textbook in social studies contained 100 errors. Go
exposed the errors in another social studies textbook in 2004 and
has since become a self-appointed textbook critic.
Go said he reviewed textbooks in
English, Filipino and social studies that are currently being used
in public schools and allegedly found that half of them were
defective.
Lapus urged the public to report
any error in textbooks used in public schools.
“As part of the Textbook Count
program, we welcome the continued participation of our civil society
partners in the review of these materials. We cannot allow our
students to use textbooks with these errors. This is totally
unacceptable,” he said.
-- Jonathan Hicap
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