DepEd conducts probe on Go's new textbook errors allegation

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) is already conducting a content study of an English textbook it purchased in 2007 said to be riddled with more than 700 errors.

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said that they have engaged the services of an academic expert from the University of the Philippines to look into the allegation of textbook crusader Antonio Calipjo-Go that an English textbook series for Grades 1 to 6, titled “English for You and Me” authored by Elodie Cada and published by Bookwise Publishing, was peppered by countless grammatical and conceptual errors.

“There’s an investigation underway. We’re not ignoring the expose of Mr. Go,” Lapus told the STAR.

It will be recalled that Go, an academic supervisor of the Marian School in Sauyo, Quezon City, had earlier resurfaced to expose the hundreds of errors he found in the said textbook.

The manuscript of the textbook was purchased by DepEd in 2007, and after the printing of the textbook by a selected printer, the book was delivered to public elementary schools last year.

Lapus said that they will await the results of the study by the UP expert before taking the appropriate action on the textbook.

Go, who was responsible for the discovery of a number of defective textbooks used in public as well as private elementary and high schools since 2003, said that the error-riddled English textbook caused serious questions on the effectiveness of the DepEd’s much-ballyhooed four-level evaluation process to prevent the purchase of defective textbooks for public schools.   — Rainier Allan Ronda