MANILA, Philippines -- Two government agencies are at odds over which of them would weed out defective textbooks used in elementary and high schools nationwide.
Sources told The STAR that Ateneo de Manila University president Fr. Bienvenido Nebres will call a meeting today of the Presidential Task Force on Education that he chairs to discuss the issue of textbook review.
Commission of Higher Education Chairman Emmanuel Angeles III wants to take over from the Department of Education the function of reviewing textbooks for elementary and high school students.
There was need to put more values formation and good manners and right conduct education in the curriculum and textbooks in schools to improve their quality, he added.
However, DepEd insiders told The STAR it was “a waste of time” for the CHED to review textbooks in elementary and high schools because the DepEd has a textbook evaluation mechanism in the Instructional Materials Council Secretariat.
“That’s not their jurisdiction anymore,” a DepEd official said. – Rainier Allan Ronda