DepEd print ad raises questions

A Department of Education ad (“Invitation to Bid [Re-Bid],” Inquirer, 10/16/12) piqued my curiosity. It stated: “The DepEd-Bureau of Alternative Learning System (BALS) intends to apply the sum of P6,950,876.88 to payments under the contract for the SY 2012 Alternative Learning System Accreditation and Equivalency (ALS-A&E) Test.” I hope the people concerned can enlighten me on some of the questions which confuse me.

How many people actually take the ALS-A&E test each year? Is the number so great as to necessitate the “printing, packaging and labeling of answer sheets” at the cost of P7 million?

Item B calls for the “processing of scannable answer sheets and checking and analysis of essay answer sheets.” Shouldn’t the duty and responsibility of processing the answer sheets be handled by any one of the legion of agencies under the DepEd which has the authority, capacity and competence to do this? I am referring to the BALS itself, the National Educational Testing and Research Center (NETRC), the Bureau of Secondary Education and the Bureau of Elementary Education. Isn’t the NETRC the agency mandated to research, evaluate and assess the results of the different tests conducted by the DepEd to monitor the effectiveness of education? I am referring to the National Elementary Achievement Test, the National Secondary Achievement Test, the Philippine Validating Test, the Philippine Educational Placement Test and the Accelerated Learning Program for Elementary School Test.

How can the DepEd delegate the sensitive task of checking and analyzing answers to essay questions to just about any Tom, Dick or Hayden who wins the bidding? How can the DepEd be sure that the winning bidder is capable of grading essays when its very own “Learning Package for Grade 7 English,” the basis of all teaching and learning in Grade 7 in all public elementary schools at present, is itself full of errors?

Item C calls for the “printing, packaging and labeling of Masterlists of Test Takers.” What’s the point of printing so many masterlists (its very name suggests a summation, a condensation)? Could the DepEd not simply keep a record of who took the test this year and who passed or flunked it?

I do not see the point of spending so much for something whose use and application is not that clear, not that urgent and not that absolutely necessary. To relinquish to others the duty and responsibility of checking test results is not unlike a teacher asking her neighbor to check her test papers for her. It seems to me a dereliction of duty on the part of the DepEd and its legion of satellite agencies, each of which already derives substantial funding from the government. The money is better given to the mobile teachers serving under the BALS, to augment their meager salaries and allowances.

I volunteer to check, analyze and correct the more than 500 errors of the “Learning Package for Grade 7 English” at no cost to the government. No need for the DepEd to bid this out.

—ANTONIO CALIPJO GO, academic supervisor, Marian School of Quezon City, 199 Sauyo Road, Novaliches, Quezon City