Books of quality before library hubs

Reacting to the complaint of the Philippine Book Development Federation (“Luistro circumventing RA 8047,” Letters, 10/20/15), Anna Cristina Ganzon of the Department of Education wrote in her response: “The DepEd follows the stages involved in the evaluation and selection process of manuscripts to ensure the quality of the learning materials and textbooks for use in public schools nationwide” (“Procurement laws on IMs followed,” Letters, 11/6/15).

Since 2013, I took it upon myself to review all four DepEd-published learner’s materials used in the subject English in Grades 7, 8, 9 and 10. I found all four of them to be riddled with errors. My latest article titled “Grade 4 book in carabao English” (Front Page, 9/14/15) also exposed the errors of two DepEd-published textbooks in English used in Grades 2 and 4. Recently, I reviewed the “Grade 4 Science Learner’s Material,” only to discover—and I was not surprised at all—that it has 775 errors.

Listed below are some of the errors of (just) Unit 4 of the “Grade 8 Science Learner’s Module,” another DepEd-published textbook. I hope this will suffice to explain why I find that particular statement of Ganzon hard to believe. Unit 4 got the bulk of its materials (even the illustrations) from another public school textbook whose numerous errors I had already exposed in 2010 by way of the article “The blind leading the blind” (Front Page, 6/21/10). The first edition of that book, written by people from the University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education Development (UP-Nismed), was published in 1990, or 25 years ago, and no new and substantial information has been added in this book while old and new errors still abound.

Before the DepEd adds more library hubs, it should first give priority and full attention to the quality of the content of the textbooks which public school pupils, students and their teachers are using on a daily basis.

• The nerve cord in vertebrates is enclosed by the projections of the vertebrae.
• Sharks may feed on small fishes or on floating algae.
• Eels are wormlike fishes.
• The hagfish is wormlike and use a toothlike tongue to eat dead organisms.
• The whale shark, RINCODON TYPUS, is found in marine waters of Cebu, Sorsogon and Dumaguete.
• An estimated 1.8 million bats are overloading Monfort Bat Cave on the Philippines’ Samal Island.
• Make a food web based on your meal. Your food web must have producers, consumers and decomposers.
• Materials needed: 10 mL fresh pineapple juice and 10 mL bromeliad leaf juice.
• Birds weigh less because their bones are light and hollow filled with air.
• Crocodiles are predators of deers.
• A common snake species is the reticulated python seen in zoos.
• Both frogs and toads jump. Some frogs can leap and attach to tree trunks.
• Bacteria play a role in the cycling of some substances such as water, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen.
• The spiny anteater living in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea as well as the duck-billed platypus are monotremes.
• The octopus is shell-less.
• The TOUNGE is the organ of taste.
• Vast tracts of land are converted to rice farms, sugar farms and coconut farms.
• Example of a lizard is the CHAMLELEON.
• Some parts of plants are not edible, for example, peel of some fruits.
• Flatworms belong to Phylum PLATYHEMINTHES.
• Gastropods has

only one shell.

• Animals that belong to Phylum Annelida are also known as annelids.
• How does the adult of this mosquito look?
• Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk in a monastery in Brunn, Austria-Hungarian Empire.

Antonio Calipjo Go (sickbooks_togo @yahoo.com) is the academic supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City.