DepEd apologizes for new error in TV lesson
First it was English. Now it’s Math.
The Department of Education (DepEd) is again facing a firestorm of criticisms for a “wrong solution” to a Math problem shown in its DepEd TV aired over IBC 13 on Oct. 6 which prompted the agency to apologize for the error.
DepEd Undersecretary Alain Pascua on Wednesday issued an apology for the wrong Math solution aired in its DepEd TV and thanked those who pointed it out.
"Humihingi po kami ng paumanhin sa ating mga mag-aaral, sa mga magulang at teachers sa pagkakamaling ito. Hihigpitan po natin ang pag-QA para maging perpekto ang ating mga episodes sa DepEd TV. (We apologize to the learners, parents, and teachers for this error. We will tighten our QA to ensure that the episodes in the DepEd TV will be perfect),” Pascua said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Pascua admitted that there was an error in Episode #2 of Mathematics 9 shown in DepEd TV. He said his attention was called by a friend from Batangas when he was in Pangasinan for the monitoring of school opening.
Pascua noted that this is already the 56th aired on DepEd TV. “It’s true that there was an error and this portion was not seen in the Quality Assurance (QA),” he said.
Pascua assured that the video episode will be “fixed” so that when uploaded in the DepEd Commons (https://commons.deped.gov.ph/) and DepEd YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/DepEdTV), the correct way of solving the problem will be shown.
Pascua also appealed that while there might be errors in some episodes of DepEd TV, “we hope that the talent and sacrifice of our teacher-broadcasters, production team and the entire DepEd TV, DepEd Commons, DepEd YouTube Channel teams will also be recognized and acknowledged.”
When classes formally started on Monday, the DepEd also started airing educational videos as part of the alternative learning delivery modalities under the blended/distance learning.
Aside from modular, which is either print or digitized, and online learning, DepEd is using television and radio-based instruction to complement the Self Learning Modules (SLMs) given to students.
However, a day after classes in public schools opened, a screenshot of an educational video made its rounds online pointing out that a mathematical equation was provided with an “incorrect solution.”
A Facebook user named Jemima Manansala pointed this out when she decided to check some DepEd TV episodes out of “curiosity.” She then saw the equation citing that in order to get the “value of x, both sides should be divided by 0” when it should have been divided by 2.
This is not the first time that an error was spotted in educational TV episodes of DepEd. In its test airing on Aug. 11 to 21, photos of episodes containing grammatical and typographical errors were seen by netizens.
Pascua acknowledged the errors in accuracy, grammar and typography in the lessons aired while Education Secretary Leonor Briones assured that “control measures” will be put in place to avoid these from occurring again.
As of Oct. 7, DepEd enrollment data showed that there are 24.78 million students enrolled in both public and private schools or 89.26 percent of SY 2019-2020 enrollment. Of this number, 22.55 million students are in public schools and 2.175 million are in private schools.
Based on the Learner Enrolment Survey Form (LESF), DepEd said that there were 1,324,803 learners who chose TV-based instruction out of all the options in the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP).
DepEd said that modular distance learning is the “most preferred” modality with 9,424,925, a combination of modalities (blended) with 4,171,719, online with 3,628,636, radio with 977,929, and others with 531,229. “There were multiple answers, thus it exceeded the number of learners,” DepEd said.
As of Oct. 5, data from the Office of Undersecretary for Field Operations Revsee Escobedo showed that there are 8,082 video lessons and episodes produced for the television-based instructions.