Catholic schools urged to fight corruption in text book procurement

MANILA, Philippines - The National Book Development Board (NBDB) said Catholic schools should stamp out corruption in their textbook procurement process to protect students from overpriced and error-riddled textbooks.

Dennis Gonzalez, NBDB chairman, said private Catholic schools should address graft and corruption by their officials and teachers for their questionable selection of textbooks they use in their schools.

Similar to their counterparts in the public school system, Catholic schools officials and teachers are engaged in unethical practices and highly questionable arrangement with textbook publishers, he claimed.

“This is something that we have to tackle head on,” the NBDB chairman told a gathering of Catholic school administrators and officers in one of the break-out sessions conducted during the 2009 national convention of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) at the Manila Hotel last Thursday.

He said highly questionable textbook discounts, out of the country and out-of-town junkets sponsored by publishers and other gifts are being wangled by erring Catholic school administrators and officials that in turn cause them to use to use substandard and high-priced textbooks.

Gonzalez urged CEAP members to be role models for other schools.

“Should we not rightly expect CEAP schools and their management to be role models of fairness and accountability?” he asked.

The Department of Education (DepEd) had banned the use of an English and Science textbook used in private schools in May 2008 for containing numerous errors.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus issued an order in May 2008 prohibiting all private schools from using Harnessing English Arts Today Grades I to VI and Simply Science in the Next Century Grades I to VI, both published by Phoenix Publishing House Inc. because it contain “major errors.”

The order came after the errors in the two textbooks were exposed by Antonio Calipjo-Go, an academic supervisor of the Marian School in Sauyo, Novaliches, Quezon City.

Go has already blown the whistle on several other error-riddled textbooks used in private and public schools.