A group of education workers said that the Department of Education (DepEd) Central Office should be ultimately responsible and accountable for the “problematic” senior high school module referencing Vice President Leni Robredo.
“Our teachers, while it is beyond their job description and formal training to write and edit learning materials, were burdened with this task without any due compensation, and worse, used as the Department’s scapegoat whenever problems on module quality came up,” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said.
DepEd was called out by various stakeholders after photos of a self-learning module that supposedly put Robredo in a bad light became viral.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/08/how-could-you-deped-called-out-over-a-learning-module-putting-vp-leni-in-a-bad-light/
In a statement addressing the issue, DepEd said that the SLM was validated to have come from its Schools Division Office of Manila.
Following the incident, DepEd said that it is doing what it can to remind its officials and personnel against partisan politics.
As an explanation regarding the matter, DepEd SDO-Manila said that viral SLM did not undergo quality assurance.
After the incident, DepEd also recalled and removed from the portal said the module.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/04/08/deped-orders-recall-removal-of-viral-module-making-references-to-vp-leni/
In a separate statement, DepEd SDO-Manila that it has immediately identified the writer to explain the “motivation regarding the cited text.”
However, the writer “already passed away due to Covid-19" --- the same year of the publication date.
This explanation was denounced by ACT because it shows DepEd’s “apparent refusal to take accountability and playing the blame game against its teachers and its local office on the issue.”
ACT also pointed out that the issue is but “one of the many problems found” in many locally-produced DepEd learning modules since distance learning was first implemented in 2020.
The group alleged that the “root cause” of these problems is the DepEd Central Office’s “failure to produce and provide the standard modules” needed in all subjects and grade levels on time.
Passing on this very important responsibility to its local offices, ACT said that DepEd has been opening up a “gargantuan space for the proliferation of erroneous materials.”
ACT also called out the DepEd Central Office for its “lack of a stringent vetting process” given the localization of module production.
This, the group said, also “puts into question the efficiency” of the DepEd’s so-called quality assurance process which is claimed to have been “improved” since January 2021 --- in light of the many errors in learning modules that have been publicly exposed.
Learning materials, ACT said, play a crucial role in delivering quality education as well as in fulfilling the education’s goal of “promoting truth, critical thinking, and patriotism, and against illiteracy, unscientific thinking, and all forms of discrimination.”
ACT stressed that this duty lies on the top leadership of the DepEd, thus, it is only reasonable to “demand from them to take full responsibility and accountability on the issue of learning module production and all other concerns related to it.”