Textbook critic asks: Why late printing, delivery of textbooks?

I read in the June 9 issue of the Inquirer a Department of Education advertisement titled “Invitation to Bid” which stated that “The DepEd, through the Bids and Awards Committee, intends to apply the sum of Two Hundred Sixty-Eight Million Pesos (P268 million), being the Approved Budget for the Contract, to payments under the contract for Printing (from camera-ready Materials) and Delivery of Textbooks and Teacher’s Manuals for English Grades 1 to 5 to Public School Districts nationwide. The indicative date for Printing and Delivery is July to September 2011.”

I would like to know why these books are being ordered only now, when classes have begun? May I request, as a private concerned citizen, to see what books these are? Are they newly approved titles or merely reprints of textbooks previously found to be full of errors?

If given the chance to see these books, I hereby publicly announce that I will undertake to review and evaluate them at no cost and expense whatsoever to the authors and publishers concerned, the DepEd and the national government.

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