Books of Errors

130 English textbooks found full of grammatical errors

Alcuin Papa
Inquirer News Service

THE DEPARTMENT of Education (DepEd) has discovered grammatical errors in 130 textbooks in English and social science submitted by local publishers for possible use in public elementary and high schools around the country.

In a meeting between DepEd officials and textbook publishers, Education Undersecretary for Finance and Administration Juan Miguel Luz said none of the books submitted by the publishers passed the department's evaluation. In fact, most books required either major or minor revisions.

In an effort to improve the quality of textbooks in public schools, the DepEd is evaluating textbooks even before they are submitted for bidding. The department is also bent on revising the textbooks every five years.

Luz gave publishers a tongue-lashing, telling them to improve the textbooks or the DepEd would not buy them.

"If you want to sell to public schools, comply with our requirements and competencies. Quality begets better quality and it's our right to buy quality," Luz said.

He added that publishers must invest in research and good writing.

Luz explained that the evaluation of the DepEd was now conducted on four levels, compared to the old system whereby the department bought books solely on the basis of the lowest bid.

"There is a need to fix the content. If we leave the quality to the publishers, we might as well buy on price. If you want to do it by the old system, I suggest you find another buyer," Luz snapped.

The four levels for evaluation now in use by the DepEd are: Coverage of learning competencies (level 1); accuracy of content (level 2); presentation, vocabulary, language and the use of visuals (level 3); and grammar (level 4).

Evaluation for level 1 is done by the DepEd's original pool of evaluators. Level 2 by university professors, level 3 by classroom teachers and level 4 by grammar specialists, according to Luz.

Based on the coverage of learning competencies, the elementary and high school English and social science textbooks, as well as the teacher's manual "failed to sufficiently develop and include the required learning competencies set by the department," the DepEd said.

Department of Education (DepEd)