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Monday, July 30, 2007
Grade, high school textbooks defective: educator
MANILA -- A member of a committee reviewing the controversial schoolbooks for public elementary and high school students admitted that a textbook on health and science for Grade 5 was found 100 percent defective.
“It's condemnable,” said Dr. Jaime Tan, one of the guest speakers in the United Nation Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) media breakfast forum held at the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana.
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Tan declined to answer if every page in the book, which he did not identify, contained errors, saying the review committee will come up later with a final report.
Tan is a former health secretary and heads of the University of the Philippines (UP) committee tapped by the Department of Education (DepEd) to help in the review of the textbooks.
While admitting that the schoolbooks are full of errors, Tan nevertheless praised DepEd officials for immediately working to find solutions to the problem.
Tan stressed that with the creation of the review committee, which was in close coordination with Education Undersecretary for Plans and Programs Vilma Labrador, the next batch of textbooks for public elementary and high school students will be error free.
He said a team of medical doctors and public health experts and curriculum developers were commissioned by the Unesco Social and Human Sciences Committee to review the textbooks.
“Findings from the review are published as Volume 1 of the health curriculum in Philippine basic education. This volume is not meant to simply point out errors, but more importantly, to provide the correct information for health educators. Furthermore, publishing this reference material is only the first step. The review team has worked and is still working closely with curriculum developers of DepEd in refining the health education competencies and components of the basic education curriculum,” he said.
Tan said the second volume is now being processed by the same team using the basic curriculum as a guide.
He said the team is also creating a resource book for health educators to provide them accurate and holistic health information that would benefit public school students.
Tan said that among other recommendations by the committee is the holding of workshops for publishers and authors of books to guide them against committing errors.
Likewise, he disclosed that the committee decided to come out with resource books for teachers that will help them correct the errors found in the textbooks. (AH/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (July 30, 2007 issue)
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