Vice president and presidential aspirant Leni Robredo said that the Department of Education (DepEd) should not allow educational modules to contain materials that discredits public officials be distributed to students.
The vice president was referring to the DepEd module which apparently put her in a bad light. The four choices implicitly characterized her for blaming the government for not communicating well the quarantine rules.
The four choices in the next question once again mentions Robredo’s name again. The student is instructed to identify statements that contain unsubstantiated generalizations.
The two questions were part of the subject “Introduction to the Philosophy of Human Person.”
“Nakita ko na, nakita ko na siya pero hintayin ko ‘yung DepEd to comment. Pero responsibility nila ito eh. ‘Yung DepEd dapat hindi nagpapalabas ng anything– not just because ako ‘yung nasa receiving end ng ginawa, pero kahit ano na magpo-poison sa minds ng mga tao,” Robredo told reporters during a forum on Education in University of Pangasinan.
“Dapat hindi ‘yun pinapalusot ng DepEd. Kasi pagpapakita lang– kung totoo, kung totoo na naka-lusot ito sa Grade 11 na mga modules, gustong sabihin na napaka inefficient ng DepEd. Ito lang ‘yung pinaka-ebidensya na napaka inefficient nila na pinapayagan nila na ‘yung mga module na ganito nakakalusot sa kanila,” Robredo added.
The DepEd Schools Division Office (SDO) of Manila issued a statement apologizing for the mistake and admitted the module did not pass review.
“We sincerely apologize for any harm or inconvenience that this may have caused individuals or groups. This is definitely not the intent or the very purpose of the publication of such material,” the office said in a statement.
The SDO also admitted that the module did not go through the “conformance review”. The office said that it has identified the writer of the questions in the module, but the person has died from Covid-19.
The SDO ordered school heads to retrieve the hard copy of the learning module from the students. It has also ordered for the deletion of the module in the Learning Resource Management portal.
“During the review and revision process, we will employ more quality control and assurance processes, with teams focusing both in content and style, so that this occurrence will not surface in the future,” SDO Manila said.
The DepEd said it will conduct an investigation to determine the persons involved in the crafting of the questioned module.
“DepEd assures the public as well as candidates in the ongoing elections that we are exerting all efforts to warn our officials and personnel, including teachers, against participating in partisan politics,” DepEd said in a statement on Friday.
— Ronald Espartinez