Solar system without Pluto to be taught in schools soon

Pluto will no longer be taught in school as the ninth planet in the solar system once the government officially receives word from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that it has been demoted to a "dwarf planet."

The Department of Education (DepEd) plans to revise all Science textbooks and teaching materials to insert the new information about the solar system.

However, DepEd Undersecretary for programs and projects Fe Hidalgo said they are still trying to get the "accurate details" so they could make the decision.

"What we know is what is in the newspaper," she said.

"I am not saying that is wrong. But we need to get the details from the source. Of course that is an official report coming from a recognized organization.

"So I’ve written to them (IAU) to ask for more details. We want to get the full information about it," Hidalgo said.

She said she has not talked to DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus about plans to revise Science textbooks and other teaching materials.

Speaking to reporters at the DepEd offices in Pasig City, Hidalgo said the IAU’s decision to make Pluto a "dwarf planet" or "minor planet" has a significant effect on the education sector.

"The effect is correcting the books and the science lessons and making the corresponding (changes in these textbooks and materials)," she said.

"Maybe what we can do at this stage, before this is final, is to provide teaching notes in the meantime that it is not yet corrected in the textbooks and to provide the teachers across the country the corresponding information.

"I will ask that all the textbooks be corrected for errors. Maybe what we can do is include that in the teaching notes that we send to the field."

Hidalgo said officially, the DepEd has not made any formal announcement in schools about the changes in the solar system, but that some teachers might have already taught it in class.

"But they know it because it is all over the newspapers," she said.

Hidalgo said what the DepEd can do at the moment is ask teachers to mention in class what the newspapers have already published.

"We let them know the information," she said.

"But correspondingly, we want to also do the corrections in whatever instructional materials they have like textbooks, handbooks, teachers manuals and the corresponding lessons everyday," she said.

Hidalgo said the DepEd respects what the newspapers have published and considers these as "accurate."

"We respect the newspapers, and we assume that every newspaper gives us the accurate and authentic information," she said.

"But we also need the detailed information from the organization itself. Yes, we can mention because they know. And that can be taken as something that is an accurate information," Hidalgo said.

She said she is sure that teachers have started mentioning this new information in class.

"But for the official information, that will come from the Secretary (Lapus) in the form of what we call ‘bulletin to the field,’ which consists of the official information," she said.

Hidalgo said DepEd officials still have to formally sit down with officials of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on the government’s plan regarding this new information.

"We’ll also sit down with them (DOST officials)," she said.

"I don’t know whether the Secretary has done that, but from our end, not yet."

Hidalgo said when a person visits schools, he or she would see the planets displayed in certain areas of the schools.

"But with this new information, the schools would have to pluck one of these planets and put it among the minor ones." she said.

Recent reports said that on Aug. 24, 2006, during the 26th IAU General Assembly in Prague, Czech Republic, members agreed that a "planet" is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. — With Helen Flores