Philippines' DepEd, Six Months into School Year and 3 Textbooks Delivered.

The Textbooks/new curriculum learning material third grade students have received at the end of November 2014 (six months into the school year) are:

• English: - NOTHING FOR STUDENT USE
• Mathematics: - NOTHING FOR STUDENT USE
• Science: - NOTHING FOR STUDENT USE
• Mother tongue: - NOTHING FOR STUDENT USE
• Araling Panlipunan: (social studies) – NOTHING FOR STUDENT USE
• Filipino: – received paperback book at end of November.
• Mapeh: - received paperback book at the end of November.
• Edukasyong Pagpapakatao: (education freedom) – received paperback book at end of November.

DepEd has long considered the following as core subjects: English, Math, Science, and Filipino. It is interesting that these core subjects, the subjects that have the greatest impact on our children's future, like last year, seem to be at the bottom of the priority list for printing and distribution to our children.

The following article is from a 2008 article.

The DepEd-IMCS said it expects to attain a 1:1 textbook-to-pupil ratio in the five core subjects (English, Filipino, Math, Science and Social Studies) at all grade levels, from elementary to high school, when it completes its textbook procurement this year.

G-Watch also learned that many schools still had a textbook-to-pupil ratio of 1:3 to 1:5 in certain subjects where DepEd was claiming a 1:1 ratio.

But deliveries get delayed when the budget is not immediately transferred to school divisions and, in turn, to the district offices, said Socorro Pilor, executive director of DepEd’s Instructional Materials Council Secretariat

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It might be worth rereading another article from last year as a memory refresher of the excuses given by DepEd (Socorro Pilor) for why we were not receiving texts books last year and the questions we are still waiting to have answered.

Sadly nothing much has changed over the years, not even the people involved in the textbook fiascos. (Should that, perhaps, be telling us something?) Actually my statement is not entirely true. Something HAS changed. In 2008 they were worried about the lower than one to one rate of textbooks and learning material that DepEd claimed to have achieved (but apparently they did have textbooks). Today in 2014, we are simply trying to get DepEd to print and send Textbooks/learning materials to our schools while the books will still be useful for the school year.

It is, of course, difficult to print and distribute the current school year's text book needs when DepEd is busying filling back orders for the text book shortages of the former and now OBSOLETE DepEd education curriculum.

From Philippine Star:

June 5, 2014

Mateo said the agency has already addressed the * 2010 * backlog in textbooks, attaining a 1:1 student to textbook ratio.

However I am sure that DepEd will report that they delivered the material to the students during the year the materials were required. Just as last year, when the government declared the delivery of the grades 2 and 8 learning material was completed with a substantial cost savings. DepEd apparently does not understand that delivering the learning materials for our children to use during the last few weeks of the school year is rather useless.

Here is another one:

February 4, 2014

The President said the almost 62 million backlog in textbooks has also been solved, and the books acquired were 40 percent cheaper compared than those the previous administration acquired.

Apparently just as last year, providing little to nothing is considered a sufficient solution for meeting our children's education needs.

This still leaves the disturbing question, since DepEd funds are apparently not being used for printing and distributing Learning material as promised - where are the funds going? I guess there is no information on that, or any number of other questions, either.

And another one:

September 18, 2014

Just as DepEd told Sen. Chiz Escudero when he asked several questions about their spending. The DepEd response - no data available.

Our education system can never improve as long as we have people who are condemning our children’s education. It is time for a serous all encompassing reorganization of The Philippine Department of Education.