DepEd to issue errata for learning modules

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) will address errors found in the self-learning modules (SLMs) it had produced and printed in a rush to roll out distance learning for school year 2020-2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic that prohibited face-to-face classes.

Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said that the DepEd is in the process of hiring outside reviewers of the SLMs being used by their students.

In the meantime, San Antonio said the DepEd welcomed the efforts of netizens to call out the errors.

He said the department’s Public Affairs Service had already posted links and contact numbers where these errors can be reported.

“What we’re doing now, our Public Affairs Service (has) already posted links or contact numbers where (people) can directly report the errors they will find in our self-learning modules,” San Antonio said.

He said his office also launched within yesterday a Facebook page, dubbed DepEd Curriculum and Instruction Concerns and Issues, where such errors and other issues of concern on public school and distance learning can be reported and discussed.

San Antonio said Education Undersecretary Alain del Pascua is now negotiating with potential partners for DepEd to help out in making better SLM content.

Aside from this, he said his office was also in the process of procuring the services of reviewers of the SLMs.

San Antonio admitted that the failure to review all SLMs was due to DepEd‘s lack of reviewers as they rushed to prepare for the Oct. 5 opening of online learning.

He said that many people have volunteered to help check the contents of the SLMs.

He said that if people will help out, the problem on the errors in the SLMs could be addressed.

San Antonio said DepEd had to rush the learning materials before the opening of classes in public schools last Oct. 5 in order to produce and print out the SLMs, so that some modules that did not undergo “conformance review” by the DepEd central office.

San Antonio, at a weekly virtual “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas” press conference yesterday, said they have conducted monitoring of the errors in the SLMs that went viral on social media last week and had tallied a total of 35 errors.

Of the 35 errors, San Antonio said that only one incident with an error in an SLM had undergone quality check by the DepEd Curriculum and Instruction review team.

He said there were 18 SLMs with errors that were designed and printed out by the DepEd division and regional offices, that did not go through the conformance review of the C&I Strand reviewers at the Central Office.

Some 15 of the errors in the SLMs, he said, are assumed to be SLMs used in private schools.

San Antonio pointed out that the SLMs being used in all the schools had different authors.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros branded as highly unfair the criticisms of teachers in the light of alleged errors and confusing questions found in the SLMs.

Hontiveros, whose office received reports from the group Teachers Dignity Coalition, said the mistakes in the modules should instead be attributed to the rushed opening of classes that resulted in DepEd’s failure to standardize and strictly evaluate learning materials.

In light of these reports and the increasing demands of distance learning, Hontiveros urged the DepEd to form a technical working group (TWG), comprised of master teachers and experts who will screen SLMs before distributing to schools.

Aside from ensuring the standardization of SLMs, Hontiveros believes that this will lessen the task of teachers already dealing with heavy teaching loads.

“The teachers’ complaint is that they are developing modules in addition to their teaching load,” she said.

To augment the workforce needed for the public education system and help address the problems that have been attributed to distance learning, Hontiveros called on DepEd to hire more teachers, especially teachers who were displaced from private schools after more students transferred to public schools amid the financial hardship brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hontiveros had also pushed for medical benefits and internet allowance for public school teachers carrying out the new modes of learning. – Cecille Suerte Felipe