DepEd to tap publishing firms in production of self-learning modules

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday said it would engage partners in the publishing industry for the development and production of self-learning modules for the third and fourth quarters of the ongoing school year.

Over 25 million students in the country are currently learning through home-based delivery of lessons and most of them are dependent on self-learning modules due to limited access to the internet.

"In the next quarters, we are already moving to the process of really engaging the publishing industry and our part will now be confined to the evaluation," Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said in a Senate hearing.

"Kaya nagkaroon ng kapasidad tayo na mag-develop ng first and second quarter, eh ginawa 'yan noong time na hindi pa nag-uumpisa ang school year at ang na-engage natin diyan ay mga guro din, mga master teacher," he added.

"Ngayon naman mahihirapan na rin sila tumulong sa paggawa ng content na ito for the subsequent quarters because their time now is devoted to the teaching," he further said.

Malaluan said the DepEd intends to further tighten the quality assurance process to reduce errors in self-learning modules.

'Third party evaluators'

In a separate briefing, DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said the department planned on tapping "third party evaluators."

"Nag-create po tayo, dinagdagan ang mga tao sa regional offices po, pinalaki natin iyong grupo na gumagawa po ng tinatawag nating evaluation ng learning resources," San Antonio said at the Laging Handa briefing.

"At maliban po diyan, para po sa mga susunod na gagamitin, mayroon na rin po kaming proseso, malapit nang ma-procure iyong…parang third party evaluators po para nga po maiwasan ito," he added.

San Antonio also said the department may impose sanctions against people who intentionally created errors in the modules.

"May mga proseso naman po ang Kagawaran para mabigyan ng sanction if ever kung mapatunayan na iyon pong pagkakamali ay deliberate o talagang ginawa niya iyon para maging mali o mai-promote kung ano man iyong kaniyang sariling paniniwala," he said.

Malaluan also asked for the public's understanding, given the magnitude of the task and the limited time the DepEd had to prepare for the new learning set-up amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We had to rely also on locally developed learning resources and the decentralization increased the [number] of SLMs that are not all quality-assured in the Central Office level," he said.

Malaluan also acknowledged that some substantive errors such as the one which depicted a farmer's family in an impoverished state needs to be addressed with "deeper intervention."

Senate committee on basic education chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian agreed with him.

"I don't think that the maker of that drawing had any malicious intent but the understanding and appreciation and also the embedded stereotyping is worrisome... We really need to look at teacher education as a whole," the senator said.

Incomplete answers

During the same hearing, Malaluan bared that some regional directors have observed incomplete answers of learners in self-learning modules, indicating that they may also be experiencing some difficulties.

"May mga feedback na hindi natatapos ng mga bata 'yung activity sheets. In other words, nire-return nang hindi kumpleto ang sagot," he said.

A memorandum on academic easing has already been released to authorize the teachers to make some adjustments and give them flexibility, according to the DepEd official.

"'Yung mga batang nakikita nilang nahihirapan ay ginagawa nilang optional 'yung ibang mga tanong doon sa activity sheets," he said.

The DepEd is still studying the possibility of gradual reintroduction of face-to-face classes in 2021. — with Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News