Tragedy of errors
Tragedy of errors
Updated 10:42pm (Mla time) Nov 08, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the November 9, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
LAST Friday, the Department of Education finally admitted that a history textbook used in high schools contained errors more substantial than earlier thought. Education Secretary Florencio Abad said the textbook needed a complete rewording or rewriting of whole paragraphs, not just the identification and correction of mistakes.
The textbook, "Asya: Noon, Ngayon at Bukas," was found to contain 413 errors in its 316 pages. It is not the only textbook that needs to be reviewed. Only last month it was revealed that two science textbooks that were supposedly pulled out three years ago because of errors were still being used in high schools. Probably many others also contain factual and grammatical errors.
Abad said the discovery of errors in "Asya" had prompted the Department of Education to examine other books now being used in high schools. This is as it should be. A thorough review of all books being used in the grade and high schools should be undertaken as the first step. Next, a review of all the textbooks used in colleges and universities should also be conducted.
The whistleblower in the case of the error-filled textbooks, Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor of Marian School in Quezon City, deserves the commendation of all teachers and parents. If he had not exposed the errors, the miseducation and idiotization of hundreds of thousands of students would have continued. As it is, we cannot at this time determine the great harm that the error-filled books has done to the thousands of students who read them in the past few years. How can they unlearn the errors that they have "learned"? Can the errors ever be corrected or erased from their minds, their memories?
The authors of the error-filled books, many of them with MAs and PhDs, should be banned for life from ever writing textbooks again. Their names should be listed and the list distributed to all schools and publishing houses. If ever an Index Librorum Prohibitorum was needed in the Philippines, this is one time.
The big question is: Why did this state of affairs take place and continue in the past seven years, or probably, in some instances, longer than that? Does not the Department of Education do a regular review of the books that students are using? And did not the department officials immediately see the harm that the error-filled books would do to the minds of hundreds of thousands of students?
This tragedy of errors -- for certainly this a tragedy, not a laughing matter -- probably took place because education is considered a "mass production" thing in our country. Teachers just shovel "information" into young minds, then give them exams to test if they've remembered what they've heard and read, and if they pass, reward them with the prized pieces of paper called "diplomas." Students are taught to be parrots, hoarders of information, instead of being helped to think for themselves.
There is no sense of scholarship, no drive for excellence in our educational system in general. There are centers of excellence, of course, but they are very few. The aim seems to be just to help students finish courses so that when they graduate they will have pieces of paper to show that they are "qualified" to undertake certain professional or vocational tasks. Education has become an automatic, mechanical, almost mindless thing.
And similarly, the preparation of textbooks has become mechanical. Writers just gather some facts from some books or perhaps retrieve them from sometimes-faulty memory, and put them in textbooks. There is no meticulous study and research. No rigorous tests and standards of scholarship are applied to the writing of textbooks.
The aim of textbook writers seems to be just to finish the writing and mass-produce the books as fast as possible so that they can collect their fees and the books can be distributed throughout the country. And thus errors, misrepresentations and sometimes, outright lies are perpetuated in the textbooks that the young read. Is it any wonder that the international ranking of Philippine schools has dropped so low?
After admitting the errors in one textbook, Abad has pointed the way to the right direction. Reexamine all textbooks, rewrite and reword entire chapters of error-filled books, if not entire books, and print new copies. Withdraw the error-filled books from circulation and destroy them. This is one time when book burning is justified. The error-filled books should not be allowed to poison the minds and misinform hundreds of thousands of students any minute second longer. Consign all these books to the fire.
Updated 10:42pm (Mla time) Nov 08, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the November 9, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
LAST Friday, the Department of Education finally admitted that a history textbook used in high schools contained errors more substantial than earlier thought. Education Secretary Florencio Abad said the textbook needed a complete rewording or rewriting of whole paragraphs, not just the identification and correction of mistakes.
The textbook, "Asya: Noon, Ngayon at Bukas," was found to contain 413 errors in its 316 pages. It is not the only textbook that needs to be reviewed. Only last month it was revealed that two science textbooks that were supposedly pulled out three years ago because of errors were still being used in high schools. Probably many others also contain factual and grammatical errors.
Abad said the discovery of errors in "Asya" had prompted the Department of Education to examine other books now being used in high schools. This is as it should be. A thorough review of all books being used in the grade and high schools should be undertaken as the first step. Next, a review of all the textbooks used in colleges and universities should also be conducted.
The whistleblower in the case of the error-filled textbooks, Antonio Calipjo Go, academic supervisor of Marian School in Quezon City, deserves the commendation of all teachers and parents. If he had not exposed the errors, the miseducation and idiotization of hundreds of thousands of students would have continued. As it is, we cannot at this time determine the great harm that the error-filled books has done to the thousands of students who read them in the past few years. How can they unlearn the errors that they have "learned"? Can the errors ever be corrected or erased from their minds, their memories?
The authors of the error-filled books, many of them with MAs and PhDs, should be banned for life from ever writing textbooks again. Their names should be listed and the list distributed to all schools and publishing houses. If ever an Index Librorum Prohibitorum was needed in the Philippines, this is one time.
The big question is: Why did this state of affairs take place and continue in the past seven years, or probably, in some instances, longer than that? Does not the Department of Education do a regular review of the books that students are using? And did not the department officials immediately see the harm that the error-filled books would do to the minds of hundreds of thousands of students?
This tragedy of errors -- for certainly this a tragedy, not a laughing matter -- probably took place because education is considered a "mass production" thing in our country. Teachers just shovel "information" into young minds, then give them exams to test if they've remembered what they've heard and read, and if they pass, reward them with the prized pieces of paper called "diplomas." Students are taught to be parrots, hoarders of information, instead of being helped to think for themselves.
There is no sense of scholarship, no drive for excellence in our educational system in general. There are centers of excellence, of course, but they are very few. The aim seems to be just to help students finish courses so that when they graduate they will have pieces of paper to show that they are "qualified" to undertake certain professional or vocational tasks. Education has become an automatic, mechanical, almost mindless thing.
And similarly, the preparation of textbooks has become mechanical. Writers just gather some facts from some books or perhaps retrieve them from sometimes-faulty memory, and put them in textbooks. There is no meticulous study and research. No rigorous tests and standards of scholarship are applied to the writing of textbooks.
The aim of textbook writers seems to be just to finish the writing and mass-produce the books as fast as possible so that they can collect their fees and the books can be distributed throughout the country. And thus errors, misrepresentations and sometimes, outright lies are perpetuated in the textbooks that the young read. Is it any wonder that the international ranking of Philippine schools has dropped so low?
After admitting the errors in one textbook, Abad has pointed the way to the right direction. Reexamine all textbooks, rewrite and reword entire chapters of error-filled books, if not entire books, and print new copies. Withdraw the error-filled books from circulation and destroy them. This is one time when book burning is justified. The error-filled books should not be allowed to poison the minds and misinform hundreds of thousands of students any minute second longer. Consign all these books to the fire.
posted by Dante at 8:31 AM
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