DepEd to procure one textbook per subject over next five years

To standardize textbooks in public schools nationwide, the Department of Education (DepEd) will procure one textbook per  subject starting this year and for the next five years.

Education Undersecretary for Administration and Finance Juan Miguel Luz said the DepEd is giving researchers a specific topic on which they could focus.

"In this way, we would be saving money in research because we can now concentrate on one target every year," he said in a recent interview at the DepEd central office in Pasig.

Luz said unlike previous years when DepEd could not check the quality of procured textbooks, the new plan would allow the agency to monitor the quality of books being printed.

"But we have talked to them (the publishers) about the problem on multiple titles," he said. "That is why they agreed with our new program."

Luz said this year the DepEd will print Makabayan textbooks, but textbooks in English, Pilipino, Mathematics and Science would be procured next year and up to 2009.

With the new procurement plan, DepEd can surely stop a major problem in the education sector, namely multiple titles of textbooks on one subject, he added.

Luz said each region will have one title per subject, per year, and eventually all titles will become uniform, with only one title per textbook, per subject, per year nationwide.

Due to multiple titles, public school officials tend to choose only one set of textbooks and put all other textbooks in storage, he added. — Sandy Araneta