Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 8) – A division office of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday apologized for a learning module that went viral which put Vice President Leni Robredo in a bad light.
In its statement on Friday, the Schools Division Office (SDO) of Manila admitted the module did not pass review.
“We sincerely apologize for any harm or inconvenience that this may have caused individuals or groups. This is definitely not the intent or the very purpose of the publication of such material,” the office said in a statement.
“We apologize further to Asec. Malcolm S. Garma, then Regional Director of DepEd-NCR, and the rest of the NCR Team mentioned as part of the management team as stated in the copyright section of the published material. We admit that this module did not go through their conformance review—as it should—hereby placing mechanisms that should be followed in next productions, if any,” it added.
A self-learning module for Grade 11 students was under fire in social media after Robredo’s name was mentioned in a question that asked the learner to find a headline that has no errors in terms of spelling, grammar, content.
The four choices apparently put Robredo in a bad light, as these implicitly characterized her for blaming the government for not communicating well the quarantine rules.
The Vice President’s name was again stated in the four choices of the next question, which instructed the student to identify statements that contain unsubstantiated generalizations.
The two questions were part of the subject “Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Person.”
SDO Manila said it identified the writer of the questions in the module, but the person died from COVID-19.
The division office ordered school heads to retrieve the hard copy of the learning module from the students.
It also instructed persons in charge of the Learning Resource Management portal to take down the module in the online platform.
“During the review and revision process, we will employ more quality control and assurance processes, with teams focusing both in content and style, so that this occurrence will not surface in the future,” SDO Manila said.
Meanwhile, DepEd said it will investigate the persons involved in the crafting of the questioned module.
“DepEd assures the public as well as candidates in the ongoing elections that we are exerting all efforts to warn our officials and personnel, including teachers, against participating in partisan politics,” DepEd said in a statement on Friday.
Robredo: DepEd should not have allowed publication of materials that poison the learners’ minds
Meanwhile, Robredo said she saw the modules.
“Yung DepEd dapat hindi nagpapalabas ng anything– not just because ako ‘yung nasa receiving end ng ginawa, pero kahit ano na magpo-poison sa minds ng mga tao,” she said during her campaign tour in Dagupan City, Pangasinan on Friday.
[Translation: The DepEd should not have published anything (defamatory) – not just because I am on the receiving end of the modules, but anything that will poison the minds of the people.]
If proven that the Grade 11 modules were approved by DepEd before these went viral, the Vice President criticized the agency for the lapse.
“Ito lang ‘yung pinaka-ebidensya na napaka inefficient nila na pinapayagan nila na ‘yung mga module na ganito nakakalusot sa kanila,” Robredo said.
[Translation: This is the ultimate evidence that they are very inefficient for allowing this kind of module to be published.]
Since the start of the blended learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, DepEd figured in a number of questionable incidents in the texts of modules such as barring students to join protests and the use of a vulgar term for sex.
RELATED: Vulgar word among 155 errors in DepEd modules since October 2020
ACT: DepEd accountable on module errors
For its part, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines said the DepEd Central Office is ultimately accountable for the errors, stressing its “lack of a stringent vetting process” in local module production.
With this yet another “error” exposed publicly, ACT also puts in question the department’s quality assurance process.
The root cause of these problems is DepEd’s failure to produce and provide the standard modules needed in a timely manner and passing the responsibility to its local offices, the group added.
