Monday, January 12, 2009 Education chief rejects another review body
EDUCATION Secretary Jesli Lapus said Sunday there is no need to form another agency that will review elementary and secondary textbooks used in the public schools.
“No other body should review the textbooks in public schools but DepEd (Department of Education),” Lapus said citing the new process adopted by DepEd to ensure the acquisition of quality textbooks.
Under Republic Act (RA) 8047, otherwise known as the Book Publishing Industry Development Act of 1995, particularly Rule VII, Section II, states that, “The DECS (DepEd) shall ensure the quality of instructional materials to be adopted in the public schools.”
Another body is also redundant as it would duplicate the function of DepEd, the education chief stressed.
Lapus was reacting to an earlier statement of Commission on Higher Education (Ched) chairman Emmanuel Angeles, that the commission will take the initiative to review and edit erroneous elementary and high school textbooks.
He also said that the DepEd's 5-level Textbook Procurement Program has been cited by international groups, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) as well as the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank (WB), as a best practice.
"As a result of reforms in the textbook procurement process, the cost of textbooks has been reduced by half and is expected to further go down. Moreover, the quality of paper used in the new textbooks has significantly improved," Lapus said.
Angeles, who is also the vice chairman of the Presidential Task Force of Education (PTFE), earlier said that based on PTFE recommendations, which have been submitted to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, teams would be formed to review all the textbooks currently being used in the school year and correct factual and grammatical errors.
The PTFE was formed last year on the basis of an executive order and tasked to come up with measures to improve the quality of Philippine education and make it at par with the rest of the world.
Angeles also disclosed that another PTFE recommendation was to require graduating high school students to take scholastic aptitude test (SAT) that will be administered by a private entity as pre-qualification to pursue college education.
He said all of these will be implemented starting next school year. (AH/Sunnex)
