The Textbooks Scandal
By Kim Libarios
“Fishes live in water. They have scales as body covering and they breathe through their gills. They also have gills for breathing.”- From Science and Technology for the Modern World.
Another setback of the Philippine education system has surfaced. This time it is focused on erroneous history and science textbooks. Mind this, it is not in anyway a minor blunder.
The responsibility of the publishers as indicated by the Republic Act No. 8047 or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act indicates in:
Section 2: Book publishing industry has a significant role in national development, considering that books that are its products are instrumental in the citizenry’s intellectual, technical and cultural development- the basic social foundation for the economic and social growth of the country.
However, in the case of Asya: Noon, Ngayon, at Hinaharap, Science and Technology for the Modern World 1 & 2, and Kasaysayan ng Daigdig; the role of the publishers, its authors and of the Department of Education missed out grave errors in these books that much yet have caused more damage- the ignorance of the Filipinos.
The books
The pioneer petitioner of these erroneous books is Antonio Calipjo Go (Marian School) who paid for an ad space in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, exposing these serious mistakes with his essay “The Ninety- Five Theses of Textbook Reform”. This exposé has caused a ripple when people from the academe emerged and complained more about these erroneous books.
Asya, which is published by Vibal Publishing House, has been in circulation for thirteen years; the book is used in both private and public second year students. In its existence, together students and teachers have been learning and repeating 431 errors in its 316 pages. More than 1.147 million has been sold all over the country to public and private schools. The authors of these books namely Evelina Villoria, Ruth Fuentes, Teofista Vuvien, and Remedios Quiray (deceased) were former high officials of DepEd. In the end, DepEd admitted that indeed Asya is riddled with numerous factual, grammatical and conceptual errors, yet it has been approved three times by the same institution.
The second and third book entitled Science and Technology for the Modern World 1 and 2, published by Diwa Scholasctic Press, also acquired errors, including data such as fishes having lungs and the wrong illustration of the male reproductive system. DepEd also approved this book, and have reached in its third edition. These books were already in the erroneous section Department of Education and were subject to revision in the, surprisingly it was still used by high school students.
Lastly, Kasaysayan ng Daigdig published by SD Publications incurred 363 errors. The publisher has Vibal Publishing as its mother company, one of the biggest publishing companies of the country and also DepEd’s leading supplier of textbooks.
All four books passed the evaluation of the Instructional Materials Council Secretariat, the DepEd bureau in charge of approving the textbooks. However, despite these problems escalating, the books were not pulled out in schools, instead the publishers suggested to send a “teacher’s note” in more than 1, 654 schools that uses these books. These teacher notes would serve as the instructional guide for the mistakes of the said books.
DepEd decided to make these errors corrected, armed with eighteen professors from the University of the Philippines, the books are on its way for a much-sought facelift. These newly edited books would be released by June 2005.
Whose fault?
The publishing business has a role on developing the minds of its readers, and this comes with giving accurate facts and information. In the process of making a textbook, it takes countless editing and proofreading both done by the authors and of the part of the publisher from the start of giving the manuscript up to when the book is in its blueprint format.
This incident may boil to one point, the publishing of this book was perhaps done out of earning profit for the publishing company and receiving immense royalties in the part of the authors.
But that doesn’t stop there, there is of course the role of the Department of Education whose task is to enhance and develop the minds of the Filipino student by imparting their authority on the books that could be used in both private and public schools. In this case, DepEd abused its power and lacked on its responsibility to the citizenry.
Another point taken is on why was it just now that a teacher- Calipjo Go has exposed these kinds of controversies. This can be concluded that teachers had let these errors pass since they themselves have been using or learning the wrong details from these history and science books- that perhaps they too have used when they were younger. The parents’ liability is not excused either…
There is a need for reform of the Philippine education system and the government institutions that participates in the distribution of the books. It is without excuse that the government has caused another huge blunder and even the publishers of these books have not encourage growth but rather stagnation thus developing to a more ignorant Juan Tamad or Maria Clara. The education system of the Philippines is going to the dumps. The system is flawed, the textbooks are erroneous, the publishers are only running after the profit, and the teachers who have passed this knowledge are also nonchalant about these slip-ups. What next?
Reference:
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Philippine Star
Manila Bulletin
Business World
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The errors:
Asya
· Describing the Earth on page 178 as shaped like a coconut...“ it bulges halfway between the equator and the North Pole and flattens between the equator and the South Pole."
· The book’s introduction said Asia might not be a good place to live in, when in truth Asia was the cradle of all traditional civilizations except Egypt.
· Its sweeping generalization that Asian societies are basically the same is wrong because Asian societies differ greatly.
· Christianity was omitted as among the major religions that started in Asia.
· On page 6, the book sited the significance of volcanoes in Japan but failed to do the same in the Philippine volcanoes (example the Mt. Pinatubo eruption affected not only Central Luzon but also the rest of the world, being the biggest volcanic eruption in the 20th Century
· On page 2, it wrongly described the Asian continent as comprised of all countries in Asia and the Pacific (that would have included New Zealand, Chile, U.S. etc in Asia)
· It inaccurately described Asian geography on Page 3, 4, and 5.
· It forgot to mention among the oceans and seas of Asia, the very strategic Philippines Sea.
Science textbook:
· On page 71, “fishes…also have lungs for breathing.”
· A wrong illustration of the male anatomy on page 184
· Graphic sexual description while discussing the reproductive system on page 191 and the use of contraceptives on page 193.
Kasaysayan ng Daigdig
· That the Aztecs, Mayan and Incan civilizations were all in South America, when the Aztecs were in what is now called Mexico, the Mayans in Guatemala and the Incas in Peru and parts of neighboring countries. Mexico and Guatemala are in Central America.
· Wrong chronology of the Chinese dynasties, skipping about 700 years of history;
· That there were 15 Roman emperors, that the first one was Marcus Aurelius when the first was Augustus
· Erroneous dates and the use of C.E. instead of A.D.
