Public school textbook ‘riddled with errors’
INSIDE PCIJ by Avigail Olarte on 1/24/07

When school opens this year, nearly a million error-riddled textbooks will yet again be supplied to public schools nationwide.
This was revealed by Antonio Go, the educator who blew the whistle on errors found in a History textbook two years ago, in yesterday’s Senate hearing on the “textbook scam.” Go, the academic supervisor of the Marian School of Quezon City, said the newly approved public school textbook on Social Studies, Ang Bagong Pilipino, has “more than 100 errors.”
“Why had this been allowed to happen?” said Go, who has been reviewing “defective textbooks” for 10 years now. “This is the biggest error, teaching children things that are wrong.”
Department of Education (DepEd) officials who attended the inquiry said they will look into the errors.
One of the factual errors pointed out by Go was the complete name of the weather bureau PAGASA spelled as Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Astronomical Administration. PAGASA stands for Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Another error is the word “sangko,” defined in the book as the term for the third eldest female sibling, when it should be male. The book also calls the body of water “look” (bay) as “gulf,” a totally different body of water, and which is called “gulpo” in Filipino.
Even the maps are erroneous, Go said, as the National Capital Region is positioned in the middle of Laguna Bay and the province of Batangas is halved in two.
The book, intended for Grade 3 pupils, is written by Expectacion Castor Gonzales and published by a Korean firm, Daewoo International Supply Corp. This set of books is part of 12 million textbooks for Grades 1 to 5 funded by the World Bank.
The World Bank-funded project has been the subject of controversy following a case against one of the publishers for possible conflict of interest. The books have been kept in warehouses since last year following a lower court decision stopping the delivery to the district offices of the Department of Education (DepEd). The books were supplied by Daewoo, Vibal Pubishing House, and a Thai company, Watana Phanit Printing & Publishing.
Go further revealed that 50 percent of all public school textbooks on English, Filipino, and Social Studies are “defective” or full of errors.
He said these were his findings after studying all grade school level textbooks. DepEd, Go explained, had given him a complete list of approved textbooks currently being used in all public schools. He said he has yet to review elementary-level Science and Math textbooks.
“Despite the assurance from the DepEd that textbook evaluation is now being conducted on four levels, this is still the quality of content we are getting,” Go said.
The DepEd institutionalized a four-level evaluation process for textbooks following Go’s exposè in 2004. The evaluation includes the study of learning competencies; accuracy of content; presentation, vocabulary, language and use of visuals; and grammar. DepEd said the screeming process also now includes evaluators from “reputable colleges and universities.”
“These (books) are for gradeschool students, purportedly written by Phds,” said Harry Roque, counsel of one of the losing bidders, during the senate hearing. “Why do these mistakes occur despite the evaluation process allegedly implemented by DepEd?”
Roque added, “The fact that these errors are still so prevalent already indicates that there is now a need to revisit the evaluation process.”
Roque also said that DepEd should make the evaluation process more transparent to prevent further errors like those found by Go. “The existing process of evaluation is so secretive, it breeds graft and corruption.”
Go has said that he is willing to work with the education department to correct the errors. “These errors have be corrected to minimize the damage,” he said.
Go said the new editions of the controversial book Asya: Noon, Ngayon at sa Hinaharap still contains some of the errors he discovered and exposed in 2004. Publisher Vibal in 2005 issued a supplemental handbook – more than one million copies free of charge — to replace Asya, even as it published an open letter in 2004 describing Go’s allegations as “nothing more than a perverted and vicious assault upon the honor and integrity of the authors.”
Go has incurred two libel suits from two authors of Asya and two more from Phoenix Publishing in 2005, following another exposè on two of the firm’s 12 books.
Below is an excerpt from Go’s “Ninety-five Theses of Textbook Reform” which he says will help the government in implementing changes in what he calls “the country’s perennially chaotic textbook procurement program”:
Access to textbooks
· There should be one textbook per pupil/student per subject in all public schools
· DepEd should prescribe a single title per subject, per grade or year level in all schools within a region
Textbook procurement
· DepEd must procure quality textbooks
· Bidding and awarding of contracts must be monitored by a body outside of DepEd’s own Bids and Awards Committee
· Texbooks shall be procured every five years
· The bidding and awarding of contracts of foreign-assisted porojects must be monitored and regulated
· The distribution and delivery of books must be closely monitored
Process of evaluation
· A two step process of evaluation should be implemented where there will be two evaluators from the private sector and two reviewees from DepEd
· Evaluators must not include DepEd employees
· Reviewers and evaluators must not be related in any way to any of the authors or publisher of the book which they are reviewing
· Identites of both evaluators and reviewers must be revealed
Textbook standards
· All previously approved titles must undergo review and re-evaluation
· In the area of content, the following should be taken into account: factual errors, conceptual errors, biases and prejudices, negative influences on moral virtues and values
· All textbooks approved by DepEd should contain no more than 20 grave errors
Legislative intervention
· A law must be passed declaring the making of defective textbooks a crime with a corresponding punishment
· A Textbook Reform and Development Commission must be installed
· The practice of the three-shift session (three classes using the same classromm one after the other in one day) must be discontinued
· Every citizen must be given the right to look into the quality of textbooks being used in public school without fear of harassment or retaliation

WHEN school opens this year, nearly a million error-riddled textbooks will yet again be supplied to public schools nationwide.
This was revealed by Antonio Go, the educator who blew the whistle on errors found in a History textbook two years ago, in yesterday’s Senate hearing on the “textbook scam.” Go, the academic supervisor of the Marian School of Quezon City, said the newly approved public school textbook on Social Studies, Ang Bagong Pilipino, has “more than 100 errors.”
“Why had this been allowed to happen?” said Go, who has been reviewing “defective textbooks” for 10 years now. “This is the biggest error, teaching children things that are wrong.”
Department of Education (DepEd) officials who attended the inquiry said they will look into the errors.
One of the factual errors pointed out by Go was the complete name of the weather bureau PAGASA spelled as Philippine Atmospheric, Geographical and Astronomical Administration. PAGASA stands for Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.
Another error is the word “sangko,” defined in the book as the term for the third eldest female sibling, when it should be male. The book also calls the body of water “look” (bay) as “gulf,” a totally different body of water, and which is called “gulpo” in Filipino.
Even the maps are erroneous, Go said, as the National Capital Region is positioned in the middle of Laguna Bay and the province of Batangas is halved in two.
The book, intended for Grade 3 pupils, is written by Expectacion Castor Gonzales and published by a Korean firm, Daewoo International Supply Corp. This set of books is part of 12 million textbooks for Grades 1 to 5 funded by the World Bank.
The World Bank-funded project has been the subject of controversy following a case against one of the publishers for possible conflict of interest. The books have been kept in warehouses since last year following a lower court decision stopping the delivery to the district offices of the Department of Education (DepEd). The books were supplied by Daewoo, Vibal Pubishing House, and a Thai company, Watana Phanit Printing & Publishing.
Go further revealed that 50 percent of all public school textbooks on English, Filipino, and Social Studies are “defective” or full of errors.
He said these were his findings after studying all grade school level textbooks. DepEd, Go explained, had given him a complete list of approved textbooks currently being used in all public schools. He said he has yet to review elementary-level Science and Math textbooks.
“Despite the assurance from the DepEd that textbook evaluation is now being conducted on four levels, this is still the quality of content we are getting,” Go said.
The DepEd institutionalized a four-level evaluation process for textbooks following Go’s exposè in 2004. The evaluation includes the study of learning competencies; accuracy of content; presentation, vocabulary, language and use of visuals; and grammar. DepEd said the screeming process also now includes evaluators from “reputable colleges and universities.”
“These (books) are for gradeschool students, purportedly written by Phds,” said Harry Roque, counsel of one of the losing bidders, during the senate hearing. “Why do these mistakes occur despite the evaluation process allegedly implemented by DepEd?”
Roque added, “The fact that these errors are still so prevalent already indicates that there is now a need to revisit the evaluation process.”
Roque also said that DepEd should make the evaluation process more transparent to prevent further errors like those found by Go. “The existing process of evaluation is so secretive, it breeds graft and corruption.”
Go has said that he is willing to work with the education department to correct the errors. “These errors have be corrected to minimize the damage,” he said.
Go said the new editions of the controversial book Asya: Noon, Ngayon at sa Hinaharap still contains some of the errors he discovered and exposed in 2004. Publisher Vibal in 2005 issued a supplemental handbook – more than one million copies free of charge — to replace Asya, even as it published an open letter in 2004 describing Go’s allegations as “nothing more than a perverted and vicious assault upon the honor and integrity of the authors.”
Go has incurred two libel suits from two authors of Asya and two more from Phoenix Publishing in 2005, following another exposè on two of the firm’s 12 books.
Below is an excerpt from Go’s “Ninety-five Theses of Textbook Reform” which he says will help the government in implementing changes in what he calls “the country’s perennially chaotic textbook procurement program”:
Access to textbooks
· There should be one textbook per pupil/student per subject in all public schools
· DepEd should prescribe a single title per subject, per grade or year level in all schools within a region
Textbook procurement
· DepEd must procure quality textbooks
· Bidding and awarding of contracts must be monitored by a body outside of DepEd’s own Bids and Awards Committee
· Texbooks shall be procured every five years
· The bidding and awarding of contracts of foreign-assisted porojects must be monitored and regulated
· The distribution and delivery of books must be closely monitored
Process of evaluation
· A two step process of evaluation should be implemented where there will be two evaluators from the private sector and two reviewees from DepEd
· Evaluators must not include DepEd employees
· Reviewers and evaluators must not be related in any way to any of the authors or publisher of the book which they are reviewing
· Identites of both evaluators and reviewers must be revealed
Textbook standards
· All previously approved titles must undergo review and re-evaluation
· In the area of content, the following should be taken into account: factual errors, conceptual errors, biases and prejudices, negative influences on moral virtues and values
· All textbooks approved by DepEd should contain no more than 20 grave errors
Legislative intervention
· A law must be passed declaring the making of defective textbooks a crime with a corresponding punishment
· A Textbook Reform and Development Commission must be installed
· The practice of the three-shift session (three classes using the same classromm one after the other in one day) must be discontinued
· Every citizen must be given the right to look into the quality of textbooks being used in public school without fear of harassment or retaliation