Learning crisis

Learn from your mistakes, so the adage goes. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case for the Department of Education (DepEd), which ideally sets the country’s standard of learning. This week, a module that students in Manila use has once more directed attention to problematic education tools despite an earlier vow by DepEd to tighten the quality assurance process (QAP).

The module, “Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person,” for Grade 11 students instructed them to identify errors in spelling, grammar, and content, and used Vice President Leni Robredo as a subject in the examples given (as published): A. Robredo Chides Government for Unclear Communication on New Quarantine Rules; B. Robredo Blames the Government as They Don’t Have Clear Rules in Quarantine; C. Robredo Charge the Government as Culprit of Confusion in Quarantine; and D. Robredo blames those in Executive Branch for Communication’s Unclear.

Another item instructed the students to determine which statements had substantiated generalizations: A. “Drug war a massive failure”—Robredo; B. Robredo lies to the world, shames the nation and herself in UN message; C. The real albatross on Leni Robredo’s neck; and D. Let Leni plan on her own drug war.

The module, critics said, was inappropriate and malicious because it targeted a presidential candidate amid a highly contentious election where disinformation and fake news have been weaponized to win the hearts and minds of Filipinos. In addition, DepEd itself has reminded teachers and staff members to not take part in partisan political activities. How did this even pass approval?

This is not the first time that blunders have been discovered in modules and textbooks. Educator and “sick books crusader” Antonio Calipjo Go has previously revealed several of them through letters to the editor or commentaries published in this paper, or before lawmakers during congressional hearings. Such mistakes have ranged from the unintentionally funny (i.e., spelling Banaue rice terraces as “Banana” rice terraces in a Grade 7 textbook) to vulgar (i.e., describing “aswang” as a “sex-crazed” creature in a module for Grade 10 students in Pampanga).

And so every year it has become a tired refrain, especially when it’s time to ask for a budget, with DepEd making public pronouncements that it will improve its QAP to ensure that modules—critical tools for learning especially during the pandemic when face-to-face classes have been suspended—will be error-free.

In 2019, the department said it conducted workshops for academicians and validators after the Commission on Audit, in its 2018 review, flagged P254 million worth of Grade 3 learning materials for making more than 1,300 errors. The errors were grammatical and factual in nature, prompting state auditors to urge teachers “to evaluate the impact of these errors and deficiencies [on] educators and learners.”

In 2020, DepEd owned up to at least 30 errors in distance learning materials following complaints about grammar and erroneous information as well as gender insensitivity and political incorrectness. Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio admitted that not all modules distributed that year went through QAP.

Last year, DepEd again owned up to errors—at least 155 of them—found in learning materials used from October 2020 to June 2021. San Antonio said more than 20 of these errors came from unknown sources and once more assured the public that DepEd had implemented improvements in its QAP and collaborated with the Philippine Normal University in evaluating the materials.

And now this latest controversy, which the Division of City Schools of Manila said in a statement without naming names, was not intended to harm or inconvenience any group or individual. It added that it has recalled the module, which was also published online, and identified the writer, who had died from COVID-19.

“We admit that this module did not go through their conformance review—as it should—hereby placing mechanisms that should be followed in next productions, if any,” the statement read.

The division also reiterated: “As an institution that fosters truth and academic freedom, we adhere to DepEd policies, especially on prohibition from engaging in any electioneering and partisan political activity.”

These recurring blunders in learning tools leave no doubt that the country’s education sector is in crisis — deepened by the proliferation of fake news and worsened by the pandemic that has disrupted learning and will have lifelong effects on students. Next month’s elections are crucial because depending on the outcome — will the era of misinformation and disinformation continue, or will the path to learning from mistakes, correcting them, and upholding the truth, starting with what we teach our children in school, prevail?