Briones: DepEd to file raps vs. persons behind erroneous modules

The Department of Education (DepEd) will file cases against persons responsible for “careless” mistakes printed on students’ self-learning modules, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said Monday.

Speaking on “The Mangahas Interviews,” Briones said the DepEd has an “error watch” mechanism in place to detect and deal with errors on modules.

“‘Pag lumalabas itong mga materials na mali, meron kaming tinatawag na error watch na nagbabantay kung may mga mali, wini-withdraw agad. We call the attention of this school,” Briones said.

Errors on self-learning modules have made headlines in the past, including one that discouraged peaceful assembly and another that portrayed a farmer’s family in tattered clothes. 

One module also went viral for making use of names that seemed to have sexual innuendos.

“We conducted investigations and the teacher, of course, was fired. The supervisor admitted na there was carelessness. And now we have made it public na kung may mga ganoon, we will really file cases,” Briones said.

Such mistakes also prompted the DepEd to admit in October last year that its quality assurance protocols were not yet “ideal” at the time. 

Briones said that not all module errors were committed by the DepEd.

“You have one book with one error and the entire country is informed about it. Although we have produced more than 850,000 modules, which comes out and everybody gets very, very, very, angry and immediately concludes it is DepEd which is the source of all the evil that is going on,” Briones said.

The education secretary earlier sought the help of the Department of Justice on how to deal with people who falsely attributed errors in modules to the DepEd. 

Briones also said it was possible that errors were made out of some teachers’ haste to put out modules in order to sell these to students.

“This can also be a source of income kasi may mga eskwelahan na ibinebenta ‘yon. Sa public schools, pinamimigay. Pero sa ibang mga eskwelahan, binebenta ‘yon, so it’s a source of income so mabilisan,” she explained.

The Philippines continues to employ distance learning methods amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, the opening of school year 2020-2021 was pushed to October from August. -NB, GMA News