Senate probe into DepEd’s procurement of textbooks sought

Published March 21, 2024 12:45pm A resolution seeking to assess the Department of Education’s (DepEd) procurement of textbooks and other learning materials has been filed in the Senate. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on basic education, filed proposed Senate Resolution 972 amid the findings of the Southeast Asian Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) […]

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Senate probe into DepEd’s procurement of textbooks sought

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A resolution seeking to assess the Department of Education’s (DepEd) procurement of textbooks and other learning materials has been filed in the Senate.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on basic education, filed proposed Senate Resolution 972 amid the findings of the Southeast Asian Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) and the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) which reported that several students had incomplete books.

“Considering the significant role of textbooks and other learning materials in enabling learners to acquire the necessary knowledge and develop critical thinking skills, there is an urgent need to address problems in the DepEd’s procurement of textbooks and other learning materials,” Gatchalian wrote in the resolution.

According to Gatchalian, the inquiry is sought to identify and address procurement challenges and gaps and crafting complementary or amendatory legislation.

“In the absence of textbooks, learners and teachers use learners’ manuals, self-learning modules (SLM), activity sheets, and other locally developed learning resources,” Gatchlian said.

“The production of SLMs was charged against the learning resources under the flexible learning options and did not use the funds allocated for the procurement of textbooks. however, concerns were raised about the quality of SLMs and teachers extracting content from copyrighted textbooks,” he added.

The lawmaker cited the SEA-PLM 2019 result which revealed that 26.2% of Grade 5 learners in the Philippines either did not have textbooks or shared the use of language textbook with one or more learners.

The EDCOM II Year One Report also divulged the low utilization of the budget for textbooks and other instructional materials.

According to EDCOM II, of the P12.648 billion total allocation from fiscal year 2018 to 2022, only P4.470 billion or 35.3% has been obligated and P951.9 million or 7.5% has been disbursed.

“The findings of the EDCOM II Year One Report revealed that since the K to 12 curriculum was introduced in 2013, only 27 textbook titles have been procured by the DepEd out of 90 textbook titles required from Grades 1 to 10, with only Grades 5 and 6 having complete set of textbooks for all subjects,” Gatchalian said in his resolution.

He also mentioned the procurement issues identified by the EDCOM, DepEd, the National Book Development Board, and group of private textbook publishers:

  • Insufficient development time with DepEd giving only six months from textbook call despite the typical 18-month timeline required for the development of quality textbooks.
  • High participation cost with steep evaluation fees of P25,000 per titel or a P150,000 cumulative fee for titles covering Grades 1 to 6 for one subject, without guarantee that their manuscripts will be selected for publication.
  • Prolonged review processes of learning materials at both the selection and finalization stages.
  • Pricing issues with DepEd having less flexibility in adjusting textbook prices despite imposing higher standards for paper quality and production timelines compared to their private sector counterparts.

Gatchalian’s resolution has been referred to the Senate committee on finance as the primary committee, with a secondary referral to the committee on basic education. —Hana Bordey/ GMA Integrated News 

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