A group of teachers on Tuesday questioned the claim of the Department of Education (DepEd) that almost 80 percent of printed self-learning modules (SLMs) had been distributed to students a week before the Oct. 5 school opening.
Citing reports from the ground, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines alleged that it was “only recently that the digital copies of modules for printing” from DepEd’s Central Office reached its regional and division offices.
Given this, ACT claimed that the SLMs that are being distributed are either locally developed modules, diagnostic tests, and/or activity sheets for the students. “We are worried that DepEd is again misleading the public with its grand claims on readiness,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
Based on the reports it gathered, ACT said that schools in Metro Manila as well as in regions I (Ilocos), IV-A (Calabarzon), V (Bicol), VI (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), VIII (Eastern Visayas), and XIII (Caraga) are “still printing and collating locally made modules, and these are the same materials being distributed to students.”
The group added that it was repeatedly cited by teachers that the “promised centralized modules only arrived at their regional or division offices in September, and will still go through governmental processes of bidding and procurement of services for printing.”